The Frozen Bishop
by noruas bombadil
Summary: Shiro Branwen the bastard son of Qrow Branwen and Crane Schnee leads team SNOW. Sister teams RWBY and JNPR lead by Ruby and Jaune respectively. They are the three most powerful first years in recent history. This is their story, This will be their legend.
1. Chapter 1

Qrow flew as fast as he could. Ozpin was in trouble but he had higher priorities. Switching back to his human form and beginning to fall he checked his scroll. Shiro's aura was depleted but he was still alive.

Shifting back to his burd form he kept going. The cafeteria was close and he needed to hurry. Once he was inside the building he headed for the ground. He saw Shiro on his back with a short-haired woman standing over him.

She had a helmet on and a sword that was covered in blood. She was also standing over his wounded son. "GET AWAY FROM HIM" Qrow yelled as he fell from the sky on the woman. He brought his scythe down on her only for her to sidestep to the right.

Qrow moved to put himself between her and Shiro. Once he had done that he attacked. He and his weapon moved as one in an almost hypnotic display. The woman had some success in avoiding the attacks but Qrow wasn't trying to hit her.

She was backing up further and further. Right until she felt her legs bump into the remains of one of the tables. She hesitated and Qrow didn't. Using the long handle of his weapon he swept her foot lifting it and dumping her on her back laying across the table.

As he was doing this his scythe was transforming into his sword which was now chambered for a massive overhead swing. Crashing the blade down like an ax Qrow growled at the effort. The woman managed to roll away just in time to avoid the attack and this time she sprung to her feet and lept off the wreckage to kick Qrow in the face.

The blow staggered him and separated him from his weapon. This gave the woman a chance to attack, which she did. Swing her sword she tried to cut at his leg only for Qrow to step back and dodge the strike.

She returned with a swing at his side but Qrow surged forward getting inside the range of the sword. His right hand grabbed the woman's right wrist and his left grabbed a fistful of hair. As he pulled on the hair he kicked the back of her left foot thus taking her feet out from under her and sending her to the floor.

She dropped her sword in order to get her arm back. That way when she fell she was able to catch herself. She was also able to attempt to wrap her arms around one of Qrow's legs. When the imanari roll came Qrow killed it by dropping his weight on her stacking her onto her shoulders so that he could start throwing elbows at her.

This lasted until she used one of her legs to kick at Qrow making him back off. She rolled onto her feet as fast as she could and when she saw Qrow he was in an orthodox stance with his hands up his elbows out and his palms down.

The light bounce to his feet plus his stance said that he was a Kor Hada fighter. The art of Kor Hada came from the Mistrilian island of Kor Salor and it was very fond of using elbows, knees, and strikes from the clinch.

He moved forward and once he had reached her he threw out his left hand in a quick jab. When she used her right hand to parry the jab Qrow threw a left body switch kick that almost broke her aura. That combined the pain of an almost-liver-shot made her buckle slightly to her right. An opening Qrow took full advantage of smashing his left elbow into her armored face as his right arm under hooked her left.

She ducked her head down to avoid any elbows and used one her hands to block any knees only from Qrow to lift the underhook, framing off the left side of her helmet and then smashing his forehead into her armored jawline.

The unexpected blow rocked the woman and she had to stand back up to catch her balance. Once she did Qrow shoved her head up further as he swung his right elbow over her shoulder and down onto the back of her ear just wear the helmet ended.

It was like hitting a light switch she just went limp and crumpled to the floor. Qrow ran over to Shiro to see that he had dressed his own wounds and from the looks of it he would live. Qrow was looking his son over when he heard the woman from before starting to move.

Drawing his gun he was about to shoot when Shiro managed to saw. "Dad wait," Qrow did. That was the first time Shiro had called him dad in almost a decade. Something was wrong. Turning to his son he waited and Shiro said. " She saved me. If she hadn't fought them off I would be dead." by now the woman was gone so Qrow put away the weapon.

Shiro had managed to get to his feet and was limping over to a dead body he ripped the partially burned banner from the window and wrapped the body in it. With a grunt, he lifted the corpse in his arms and started for the docks.

He could smell the school burning around him and he knew that Ozpin was probably dead. That only left him with one question. "Where did it all go wrong?"


	2. Chapter 2

_Several months earlier._

Shiro relished in the feeling the wind through his hair as he was thrown across the sky over the forest. His objective was to get his hands on a relic and find a partner. Not necessarily in that order.

He saw a tree that seemed satisfactory so he drew his weapon and made himself ready. With his revolver sword combo held in an icepick grip with the pummel held to his chest and his left hand under the chamber and grasped onto his own right forearm with the blade resting on his left elbow.

He had heard the sound of Ember Celica earlier and chose to take a page out of his cousin's playbook. Chambering the fire dust round he began to fire the recoil slowing his descent. The more he slowed he began to look for a tree that fit his needs.

He found one such tree and after lining up to collide he used the point of his sword and the bend of his knees to absorb the impact. With his left hand still on his hilt and his feet angled against the tree he looked out over the forest and searched. Northward he saw a clearing that seemed to be where he was going.

He also saw an explosion that he assumed was Yang due to the large fireball to the west. That meant that he needed to go north and east. He wanted to avoid being paired with his cousins that way they could be paired together.

Ruby wasn't ready to be forced into a team away from her sister yet and they all knew it. He had seen her trying to socialize yesterday but the fact that she was trying to talk to the Schnee heiress meant that she was still bad at reading social queues.

The "Porcelain Bitch," as Yang had privately called her, wanted nothing to do with anyone who wasn't named Pyrrha Nikos. Which Shiro found amusing since Pyrrha Nikos wanted nothing to do with Weiss.

He had to admit though being on the same team as the invincible girl did have its appeals. But until he found out what kind of a person she was off the mat he wasn't willing to hang a four-year-long partnership on it.

Shiro also heard a set of gunshots that wasn't loud enough to be Ruby or Yang to the north. Since that was the way he was going any way he would see about getting a partner there. Plotting his course through the branches Shiro began his decent.

He leaped from branch to branch letting gravity help him down all he had to do was keep moving forward to make the most of his height. When he arrived at the gunfire he saw a blonde woman with a sword and shield.

Her sword looked to be lined in gold but that may just the light and her shield seemed to have a large gun built into it. Her armor covered her ample upper chest which Shiro made a fact of not staring at for too long.

She had just killed the last of the Grimm she was fighting so Shiro didn't have much to do. That being said she would be a good partner so he made his last jump to the forest floor.

When she heard the sound she calmly turned and with a smile on her face said." so you're my partner then, my name's Willow."

Extending his hand with a matching smirk Shiro replied. "Willow huh, Like the tree? Name's Shiro"

She shook the hand but quickly went back to watching the area saying. " we need to keep our guard up this forest is still full of Grimm."

Shiro leaned back on one of the nearby trees. When he answered. "Please between you and me I think we can handle whatever this forest throws at us."

Almost like it was waiting for its queue a massive King Tajui rushed out of the dense trees lashing out at Willow with its tongue. Willow lashed back from behind her shield severing one of the forks of the beast's tongue.

The tongue was withdrawn with a scream as the Tajui swung it's head at Shiro the impact sending him flying into a tree. He survived the impact and was back on his feet when he heard the sound of the Tajui struggling with something.

When he looked he saw that it had a shield in its mouth. Not Willow's shield but a different one. The large snake soon bite down and crumpled the metal before swinging back to attack Willow.

Shiro was about to attack when he saw a man covered head to toe in armor come in from the beast's flank. His gauntlets unfolded to reveal saw blades on his arms. In a quick slashing motion, the man destroyed one of the Tajui's eyes.

When the beast lifted it's head and screamed in pain he rolled over the body and repeated his work on the other eye. The snake was trying to move now but for some reason, it couldn't go backward and since it was blind it had no idea where the trees where.

This lead to the snake smashing its head around frantically before it knocked itself out. As Shiro moved in the man walked over and was about to speak to Willow when the snake suddenly came to life and wrapped its tongue around him.

Shiro moved as fast as he could but unfortunately the snake was faster. It had closed it's jaws around him in half the time it took Shiro to get there.

That man was dead, nobody could survive that. Or so he thought. Right up until and armored forearm covered in blades and blood shoved its way out of the Tajui's mouth. The other followed a second later. And soon they were prying the mouth open.

Once it had succeeded the man yelled. "THE TONGUE" he was still saying it when Willow used her sword to cut off the rest of the beast's tongue. As it screamed the man grabbed it by the fangs and forced it's mouth open wider. Shiro was about to fire an ice dust shot down its throat when Willow fired a lightning round.

The shock ran through the mouth and into the Grimm's brain frying it instantly. With the monster dead the man ripped one of the fangs off and stepped out of its mouth. One of his salivae covered hands reached out and grabbed Shiro as the other brought the fang to rest just touching Shiro's neck.

The venom dripped onto his collar as the man growled. "If you ever fail your partner again I will kill you," with that he threw the fang away and walked off towards the north.

Shiro looked to Willow who hadn't done anything after shooting the Grimm. "Who the Hell was that guy?" he asked.

Willow smiled again saying. "That was just my brother Jaune."

"Is he always an aggressive asshole?" Shiro continued.

Willow chuckled slightly before she answered. " No, he is just very protective as well as just being in a bit of a mood lately,"

They decided that it was best if they moved on in silence so that was what they did. While they were listening for Grimm they heard a strange noise. When they moved in to investigate. They found a large man holding a Grimm to the ground.

He was at least six foot four and almost three hundred pounds bit counting his armor. They watched as he wrapped his right arm around the back of the Beowolfs neck as he pinned the right side of his chest to the creature's chest.

The Grimm's left arm looked broken and the right was being locked up by the man's legs forcing it away at an unpleasant angle. While the beast was frantically trying to bite him he slid chest plate under its jaw forcing it shut.

Then he reached back and grabbed the Grimm by its right leg and lopping his arm around the inside and feeding his hand out the outside he brought his hands together and locked them in an "S" grip.

Shiro had heard of moves like this but they were normally used on people. And any normal person would never be large enough to even try it on a Grimm but this man was nearly at big as the Grimm so it was working.

The way the hold did its job was by forcibly constricting the diaphragm and lungs. The victim was able to breathe out but they couldn't breathe back in. he was for all intents and purposes suffocating the Grimm.

Shiro had never heard a Grimm scream before. That was just changed. Whether it finally realized that it was being killed or not he couldn't tell but it was screaming with all of his breathe. For a few seconds. Then it stopped breathing altogether and passed out.

Once the beast was limp the man stood up and grabbed a massive war mace that was nearby. Just as the Grimm was beginning to regain consciousness the mace crushed its skull into a paste in the dirt.

He turned to face Shiro and Willow with a look of disgust on his face. "The fuck are you looking at, if you aren't going to save my friends and you aren't going to help me carry them then you should just get the Hell out of my way!"

Until now Shiro thought that Willow was looking at the Grimm the man was killing but when he looked around he saw three bodies strewn about amidst a pile of fallen Grimm. Shiro had just seen them when Professor Port burst out of the tree line out of breath.

He looked around and Shiro could see the pain in his eyes when he saw the three dead students and the one living one who was scarred from the encounter. Speaking to Shiro and Willow Port said. "I will aid Mr. Winchester I think it would be best if you two returned to your objective."

They wanted to help but the professor was right. They still had a job to do. They kept moving North and when they found the relics they also found a few other people. Ruby was there standing with the Porcelain Bitch.

He was thinking about what to say when Yang and a another girl who Shiro didn't know approached from the treeline. The moment that the other girl saw Weiss she looked mildly aggravated.

Shiro had to do a double-take when the girl's bow twitched. Yang greeted Ruby with her usual antics fussing over her baby sister. And Ruby responded with all the fury that a five foot two reaper had.

Which was to say not a whole lot she mostly just thrashed about in her sister's grip for a few seconds. Yang did, however, release her when they heard a rather loud explosion. Everyone looked at the source and saw a dying Ursa with a disturbingly chipper looking ginger girl on it's back.

She looked at the dead Grimm and with a truly pathetic frown muttered. "Aw, it's broken," it was at about this time that a very tired looking boy with long hair caught up with her.

He was muttering something too but since they were so far away and since he was out of breath Shiro wasn't able to hear him. Returning to their mission they approached the pedestals. There were eight of them in total.

They all had chess pieces on them. Two knights, two rooks, two bishops, and two pawns. One of the bishops was missing. And Ruby and Yang both taken a knight. As they approached Willow started talking.

" Knights are the only piece that can attack a queen, but other than that they have limited use, rooks are powerful but they aren't the most powerful, bishops are arguably more powerful than a rook but they are much harder to use and while two rooks can checkmate the King two Bishops cannot. Ultimately they are a harder use piece but in the hands of a master they can be game-changing"

Shiro looked at her surprised by the lecture only for her to shrug and take a step away from the pieces. She didn't want to choose but she wanted Shiro to know what they were. After a fair bit of thought, he grabbed the last Bishop.

He had done so just as a deathstalker burst out of the treeline. It was chasing Pyrrha Nikos and swing it's tail wildly. Upon further inspection, Willow's brother was holding onto the stinger and trying to cut it off with the blades on his armor.

They all started running towards them at the same time that a nevermore attack. The feathers were flying and they were all out fo cover. Willow covered herself with her shield with one hand while the other hand forced Shiro behind and beneath her. It wouldn't do much but it was still appreciated

They all braced for impact Yang and Ruby trying to shoot down as many of the spear length feathers as they could but it wouldn't matter. If Ruby ran she would survive but she would never leave Yang behind. They would all die here. The Schnee was trying to do something but it wouldn't be enough. And the other girl with Yang was nowhere to be seen.

Then a girl in a green robe with white hair ran into the group and held her hands up. She started to move them from right to left like she was pushing something and soon enough the feather's started to move. when they landed the feathers where about ten yards to the groups left.

Shiro squirmed out from under Willow to see that the deathstalker was gone and the Willow's brother was shielding Pyrrha the same way the Willow had been shielding him. Only her brother didn't have a shield so he had tackled the Mistrialian champian and used his armor as a shield.

Shiro turned to see the girl in green-leaning heavily on a new girl who had blue hair and a leather jacket over a pink shirt. He saw a bishop in the blue-haired girl's hand but that didn't matter right now everyone needed to get back to Beacon.

…

They stood at on the stages. Shiro was with his new teammates Naomi and Oliva. Naomi was the one who had moved the feather's and it was Oliva who had convinced her to try. To his right was Ruby, Yang, Weiss, and the fourth girl that Shiro had learned was named Blake. To their right was Willow's brother and Pyrrha as well as the ginger who had tried riding a Grimm and the boy who was following her.

They had been naming teams but there was one team that wasn't named. The four-stage had only one man on it. Cardin Winchester had refused to withdraw from Beacon. He and his three best friends had come here to become hunters. Now he was the only one still alive. He had been given the pawn piece by Ozpin and was currently staring stoically at the wall trying not to show any weakness.

Ruby had been named team leader to Team RWBY, Willow's brother now revealed to be Jaune Arc was the leader of Team JNPR, And Shiro had been named leader of team SNOW. it was going to be a long year but Shiro was ready for it. After all, what was the worst that could happen?


	3. Chapter 3

Team SNOW moved as one zombified mass from their dorm to the cafeteria. It was recently made clear to them that they were all most definitely not morning people. They saw team JNPR and what seemed to be team RWBY sitting at one of the tables which lead to them dragging a table over to make room for everyone.

Once they were all situated Nora who until now seemed to be asleep lifted her head off the table and looked at Willow. "Your brother is a despot," she groaned.

"He is not,' Willow reflexively snapped back in her semi-asleep state. As she was looking around confused Jaune handed her a cup of coffee which she took with a smile.

"He got up before the sun so he could start running," Nora said. When Willow was about to respond Nora continued. " and he made us go with him"

Understanding dawned on Willow as her eyes grew. "Oh," she muttered. "Then what happened?"

Ren was the one who continued. "After we ran for a while we went into the weight room and began lifting weights, and after that, we had _wrestling practice_," the way that Ren said that told Willow what he thought of wrestling practice.

"We went light on the wrestling in order to save the delicate flower over there," Jaune said. Nora was about to bark something at him but Jaune fixed a stern glare at her and she instantly gave up on that idea.

Willow laughed at that since she now knew what he had been. "He'll mellow right now he's just establishing dominance."

Now it was Pyrrha's turn to look shocked. "He's just establishing dominance, what does he do on his own!"

Willow just laughed some more at this. She didn't want to answer so that her brother could have a legend about him with his team. That was the kind of leader he was. At first, you wouldn't like him but after a while, you learn that he would take a bullet for you. The rest of team SNOW was looking at Willow wondering how she had gotten coffee when they hadn't.

Olivia reached for the cup only to stop when she heard both Willow and Jaune growling at her. Everyone who was awake att he table looked at Jaune confused as to why he had growled but then they remembered that Jaune and Willow were twins. They may have had some kind of mental link.

Thankfully team RWBY was ready for such matters since Yang had been forced to be a morning person in order to take care of her baby sister. She passed the large pot of coffee down the table. An act that earned her several pleased grunts from team SNOW.

Once they were all human again, or as human as Blake and Naomi can be. They headed for the food. Thanks to the dire need for hunters the city of Vale offered Beacon a substantial amount of money in exchange for Beacon locating its academy in the middle of the city.

As such tuition was not charged to the students in conventional ways. Instead, they earned their keep by going on missions in the surrounding countryside and in some cases even by doing police work.

It also meant that Beacon's facilities were well stocked. So when the horde reached the kitchen area they found the staff hard at work making large amounts of breakfast food. Nora, of course, went right for the pancakes while Ren reached for the oatmeal. Pyrrha got a small plate of scrambled eggs, and Jaune got a plate of some kind of diced meat and potatoes.

Team snow was surprisingly consistent. Shiro got some scrambled eggs and homefries, Naomi grabbed hard-boiled eggs and toast. Olivia's plate had over-easy eggs and homefries, while Willow had scrambled eggs and toast.

Team RWBY was chaos, Weiss was complaining about the food while Yang was wolfing down a waffle. Ruby had inhaled a bowl of cereal and Blake was hard at work trying to find a particular kind of food but with a mildly disappointed look on her face settled on a muffin.

When they were back at their table it seemed to register to everyone that no one knew what Jaune was eating but he sure was excited about it. It was the first time that anyone but Willow had seen him smile.

"What'cha got there shining knight?" Yang asked with an amused grin.

"This," Jaune said grabbing his fork and taking a bite. "Is hash," that didn't explain a whole lot but nobody really wanted to interpret him since he looked happy.

While that was going on Wiess was still muttering about how the eggs were overcooked and the coffee was too oily. Oliva who seemed to be cringing that whole time finally snapped and got up walking over to Weiss. "Listen up you little priss, you aren't in your fancy mansion so for the time being you need to eat like us peons. If that is a problem for you then the door is always open."

Weiss looked like she had just been spit on. "Who do you think you are? Talking to me like that," she yelled.

Snapping into a parade rest that conflicted heavily with her biker jacket and disheveled hair cut she said. "Atlas cadet 382047386" Weiss whipped out her scroll like she was about to call someone when Oliva continued. "Cadet 382047386, Olivia Ironwood,"

Weiss froze in her tracks as did the rest of the room. Looking over at Wiess' scroll and the number she was about to dial Oliva laughed "oh, you have Sarah's number that's cute,"

Oliva pulled out her own scroll and used the speed dial. After a moment the call was answered and General Ironwood answered. "Hey daddy," Oliva said with a smile. "I just wanted you to know that I made it through initiation just fine, made a good team."

Ironwood (who was wearing reading glasses) looked up from the paper he was signing and said. "That's wonderful sweetie have you gotten your class schedule yet?"

Olivia nodded yes while doing this she hit the call button on Wiess' scroll. After a few moments, a scroll could be heard ringing in the background and the general's secretary said. "Sir Ms. Weiss Schnee calling for you,"

Ironwood sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose and taking off his glasses saying, "Sorry sweetie but you know how it is,"

Both he and Oliva spoke in unison to say "I have an army and a school to run with politics in between,"

"Talk to you later sweetheart bye," the general said hanging up the call and answer the call from Weiss. "Ms. Schnee, how may I help you?"

The reason that Weiss even had Ironwood's secretary's number was because he was the nearest thing to a father that she had. He had been called like this a few times when she needed advice or when she was having a problem with someone.

He was clearly a little annoyed about having to hang up on his daughter but the longer that Weiss just stared at him without saying anything the more annoyed he was getting. After a few seconds of Weiss just staring blankly, Ironwood chastised her saying. "Weiss, I didn't give you that number so you could crank call me."

With that, he hung up and Olivia walked back to her seat and went back to eating her breakfast. Everyone was silent for a few seconds. They all knew who Weiss was but they had no idea that the daughter of one of if not the most powerful man in the world was in their midst.

It was Shiro who spoke up first saying. "Well, that was good to know, note to self never piss off Oliva she can make my family disappear,"

After the laughing died down everyone went back to their food except for Weiss who was still unimpressed with the food. They finished just in time for their first class which just so happened to be Professors Port's class on Grimm studies.

It was an informative lesson for the five students who stayed awake through it. For the rest of them, it was nap time. The lecture was about the time that the mighty mustached man had faced off with a large number of Beowolves and defeated them by oddly enough running into the group with reckless abandon.

The act of blatant bravado drew out the alpha and his close allies. Who he then destroyed causing the whole pack to devolve into anarchy. At that point, they were much easier to dispatch.

The bell rang and most of the class woke up and headed for the combat room where Professor Goodwitch was waiting to give them their next lesson.


	4. Chapter 4

The combat classroom was massive they had several sets of mats and arenas some had training drones and some had striking and grappling dummies.

A smirk spread across Shiro's face when he remembered the words of his uncle. " most of the folks you are going to meet at Beacon are trained to fight Grimm. Hey will very rarely be trained to fight people but that is part of the job so I am going to make sure you are ready."

Those were the words Tai spoke before he taught Shiro Kor Hada. it was a style of striking like what Yang used but it also incorporated limited grappling. Normally just to set up more strikes. Much to Shiro chagrin he later found out that when he was younger his father fought in Shanqual or as it was more commonly know Zintran Boxing.

The rules where similar to Kor Hada and master of one might be confused for a master of another. The real difference was that Shanqual from the island of Zintra while Kor Hada came from the Island of Kor Salor. Both were off of the southeastern coast of Mistral but Shanqual had fewer rules most notably it allowed the use of headbutts. This meant that a Shanqual fight was really as close to a sanctioned barfight as you could get.

Professor Goodwitch was waiting for them to stop talking amongst themselves before she would begin the lesson. They soon did and she and she started by saying. "The first thing you need to know about combat is that you know nothing about combat." there was a confused silence over the room as she explained. "All of you have trained for combat, some of you have even competed with live opponents. But none of you understands the feeling of true violence."

As she said this a set of statistics appeared on the main screen. They match Glynda's next words. "Roughly one-fourth of you will not be alive in four years. Beyond that only one-eighth of you live to be thirty. Of that only one in every twenty will live to die of old age. There is one Hunstman in history to have been able to maintain active duty for more than four decades."

The words disappeared and the screen went black as she continued. "It is my job to make sure you are as prepared as possible for the day that you will ultimately not survive. I will teach you to kill, both people and Grimm. From this day forth you are Remnant's greatest defenders. Without you, this world would burn in Hellfire."

A somber silence fell over the room as Glynda continued. " that being said who wants to start off with some sparring.?"

An odd number of kids raised their hands so after selecting an even number of students Glynda started to assign them to mats. Shiro found himself standing across from Pyrrha Nikos. They were on the mat the farthest from Goodwitch but that kinda made sense. Pyrrha was probably the one in every twenty for this class and any match that had her involved didn't need a referee or monitor.

Shiro waited for his opponent to signal that she was ready. Which she did, knowing that he wasn't going to win if he was timid Shiro lunged at her like a bat out of Hell. he was happy to see that she was on the back foot and after he had backed her up to the edge of the mat he asked her. "What's the matter do you need a breather."

that was a mistake, one that Shiro learned when Pyrrha's eyes shifted from calm and borderline happy to serious. With a seemingly trivial amount of effort, she cracked the blunt end of her spear across Shiro's wrist. The impact making him drop his sword. The same sword that was then batted across the room by the same end.

Shiro looked at his weapon flying far from his reach. Turning back to the threat he saw Pyrrha throwing her own weapons away. That made sense. He had started this by laying the heat on her. She was probably used to people trying to get one up on the champion during sparring. Now she was sending a message. making an example of him.

He took his Hada Kor stance and moved forward. He was committed now it was time to do or die. He stepped forward and threw a right teep kick from his orthodox stance. Pyrrha responded to this by catching his foot and after under hooking her left arm beneath Shiro's knee she spun into a spinning back sweep sending Shiro's legs out from under him.

As he laid there trying to get his breath back Pyrrha grabbed one of his legs and set about locking in a kneebar. Shiro acted fast by kicking at Pyrrha's ass only to miss and end up landing a kick directly in the champion's crotch.

The sound that she made was a mix between a grunt and growl as she released Shiro's legs and drove her heel into his own groin. The pain that he felt was indescribable and by the time he was able to scramble to his feet, Shiro was fuming. As he moved towards Pyrrha she seemed to reel back and start to reach for her spear.

His rage now in full control Shiro yelled. "What's the matter not so invincible anymore." even though her spear was still several feet from her it shot from the ground and flew into Pyrrha's hand. In a swift deliberate action, Pyrrha threw the spear but it sailed passed Shiro and sank into something behind him with a loud crunch.

As his anger died Shiro turned around to see a creature from his nightmares. When he was still in his first year at Signal Yang had taken Ruby and left to find her mother. Shiro knew that it was a bad idea but so did Yang. when Yang ran into trouble she called first Shiro then his father. Both of them started to move in the direction that Yang had moved but Shiro was delayed. He had run into the alpha of the pack that was attacking Yang and Ruby.

It was only by the sheer dumb luck of the draw that Shiro survived that encounter. The alpha seemed to be trying to play with him so he had managed to land a massive stab into the beast belly. The last Shiro saw of it was when it limped into the darkness of the forest.

And now it was standing in front of him just like the day he had fought it. This tie the monster made not of flesh but some form of ice. Ice that had a grey tint to it. Shiro's fear froze his body as the Grim moved onto to attack the Mistrilian champion.

Pyrrha threw her shield at the Beowolf's neck but the strike did no real damage. Just as the beast was about to attack Pyrrha Shiro heard a loud yell and saw Jaune in his armor. He attacked from the monster's blind spot. With a powerful elbow smash, he buckled the right knee. And when the Beowulf attempted to swing at him with its left arm he countered by stepping back out of reach and launching off his back foot driving into the back of the right shoulder with his left fist.

The blow shattered the entire arm and using the opening that was now present Jaune switched from standing to the Grim's right to it's left. His right arm wrapped around the neck in a reverse guillotine while his left arm came down on the grim's left shoulder shattering it.

With his right arm, he cranked back on the head and in a swift motion he ripped the head off. Finally killing the monster before he staggered away pressing buttons on his gauntlet as he fell to his knees.

His helmet came off to show that he was drenched in sweat and was panting like a dog. "Dammit," Willow said from her place on the other end of the room. "He overclocked the armor, he's cooking in his own skin." as she said this Weiss who had begun to watch Shiro intently acted. While Willow was trying to hijack the fire-suppression system Weiss opened the magazine on Shiro's gun and pulled out a fire, ice, and air dust crystal.

With half of the class shouting warnings Weiss held the crystals in her hand and closed a tight fist around them. She then smacked her closed hand fusing the stones together. She threw the fused stones into the air at Jaune and drew her rapier.

With a precise shot, she sent a charge of lightning dust into it. The result was an explosion of water the drenched Jaune and the armor cooling both off quickly. After a few seconds of Jaune still, just staring at the floor where he had stopped. Willow asked him. "You okay Bro?"

"The circuitry and the hydraulics are shot, I can't move until I unlock the armor. With the help of Shiro and one of the larger boys, Jaune was half dragged half carried out of the room and when they turned towards the infirmary Jaune interrupted. "No, Machine bay not the infirmary."

They wanted to ask why he wanted that but settled for just listening to him. Once he was seated on one of the workbenches Jaune looked at the other boy and said. "Thank you, give us the room,"

The boy left the room and Jaune started to Shiro. "So I guess you're going to kill me now?" Shiro asked.

"No," Jaune corrected as he began to take off the armor. After the first few pieces were off Shiro noticed that Jaune's armor was attached to screw ports that seemed to be attached to his bones. Shiro also noticed that there were burn marks on Jaune's arms where the hydraulics had burst the fluid leaked out.

"Do you know why I did this to myself?" Jaune asked

Shiro looked like he was about to answer when Jaune continued. " I am Pyrrha's team leader. She, Ren, and Nora have all trusted their lives in my hands, as such I am the first one into danger and the last one out of it. If I had died on that training room floor I would have died happy knowing that my team was made safer by my actions. Being the leader of a team is a massive responsibility. Think about that,"

By now Jaune had gotten the last of the armor off and was just left with his burned body glove he put all the armor into a small wagon and brought it over to a furnace. Much to Shiro's shock he started throwing the pieces into the fire. "I can't let the tech in the suit end up in the hands of anyone who isn't named Arc. I can get a new one soon," he said

His actions explained Jaune headed for the infirmary leaving Shiro with several questions about his leadership skills and one that was simply. "Who the Hell is this guy?"


	5. Chapter 5

**_hey everyone just wanted to let you know that I am not dead my laptop was KIA and I had to get a new one but I am back and can finally return to my work thank you for your patience and have fun reading. _**

Qrow was waiting for his food when his scroll rang. It was Shiro so he picked it up without a second of thought and answered. He knew that the time difference would mean that it was about lunchtime for Shiro. "Hey, buddy what's up?" Qrow asked.

"I need your help in finding some stuff on a student in my class. What do you know about someone named Jaune Arc?" Shiro expected an answer but instead received the sound of his father gagging on his drink.

"Did you just say Arc?" His father asked.

"Well yeah, what do you know?" Shiro replied.

Qrow leaned in a little closer and spoke a little quieter. "If you have an Arc in your class then you watch them carefully. The last time an Arc left the Arclands the damn world almost ended. They are freaking omens man."

"Damn," Shiro muttered. "I have two in my class."

Qrow's eyes bulged slightly when he heard that. "Two?" he asked.

"Yeah, and one of them is on my team," Shiro continued.

"You mean to tell me that your team leader is an Arc!" Qrow asked somehow more shocked then he was before.

With a poorly hidden smirk, Shiro replied. "No I have an Arc on MY team, I'm the leader. She's actually my partner."

Now it was Qrow's turn to smirk in the way that only a father can do. "you're the team leader and partnered to an Arc?" he said.

Shiro nodded his head to answer which lead Qrow to asking. "Is she cute,"

Shiro rolled his eyes. As soon as he said the word "she" he knew that this question was coming. "Yes but she doesn't have any interest in me and even if I had any in her I wouldn't act on it. I think her brother hates me."

Qrow nodded understandingly he had once loved a woman whose father was less than approving. It was a real shitshow. Qrow turned back to Shiro in order to take his mind off of his past.

He was about to speak when the bell that signaled the end of lunch rang. "Alright I'll talk to you later, love you, buddy"

"Yeah sure bye," Shiro said before he dropped the call.

Qrow felt another part of his soul crack. His own son couldn't say that he loved him. Not that he could blame Shiro. Qrow had never been a major part of Shiro's life. He was too afraid of being more of a curse than anything else.

"Who was that," the bartender asked him. She was a pretty girl and Qrow would be lying if he hadn't had a few thoughts about her, but the end of that call had killed any thoughts.

"My son," he answered.

Her face seemed a little shocked and now she looked like she was worried that she planning on hitting on a married man. "Your wife must be a lucky woman?" she said.

"Yeah," Qrow muttered looking at the lock screen on his scroll. He had loved his wife and then he had killed her with his fucking semblance. She died to give birth to Shiro and in a way, Qrow had died with her.

Shiro was all that he had of her now. And he saw so much of her in him. That was for the best Qrow had killed the only woman who could have ever loved him so the fact that his son didn't take after him was a good thing.

The bartender seemed to realize that something was wrong so she asked him. "Can I get you anything, sir?"

Qrow shook his head slightly saying. "No, I'm gonna head to my room for the night." with that he headed for his bed. He had lost his appetite about two sentences ago.

…

Blake couldn't sleep after the argument she had had with Weiss. It had started out petty enough but soon her and Weiss' radically different political views came to the surface. Soo they were both screaming and Blake ran away to avoid committing a felony.

She was making her way to the docks when she heard something that she wasn't expecting. Someone was reading in one of the small gardens that dotted the school and they were loud enough for her to hear and she knew what was being read.

Blake gently pressed herself to the cobblestone wall of the garden and listened/

Ferocious, untamed. this beast has no master

It has only carnal wants and needs

Enslaved by such things, to be owned by a spell while being its caster

These beasts, These monsters are not beholden to anybody else's creed

Not knowing the worth of honor or respect

Only bowing down to greater power

This beast has a soul that would be barely worth the effort to detect

A soul that left to its own will someday soon begin to sour.

Corrupt at heart undeserving of mercy.

This beast is cruel not caring for others

of love and affection, this beast is wholely unworthy

truly an only a primitive thing is capable of such horrors wrote on its own brothers

there are those who would slay this beast at any chance they think they can

to them I give a warning, this very same beast is The Beast of MAN!

There was a short pause before she heard Jaune speak. "You said you know who wrote this.?'

It was Shiro who answered. Saying. "Yes, that was Joshua Dunstal," he said.

Blake was a little shooked that Shiro would know about Joshua Dunstal. He was a lesser-known writer from several generations ago. His works often highlighted the need for humanity to have some manner of higher authority dictating right and wrong to them.

"What does it mean?" Jaune asked.

" Poetry has no true meaning but if you want to know what Joshua Dunstal meant by it I suppose he saying that when left unchecked Mankind will always fall to their lesser instincts. Forgoing all honor and dignity. In effect making themselves into monsters. I think Dunstal is saying that this is man's natural state." Shiro replied.

Blakes Surprise grew more with each passing word. Shiro may not have known it but he just came to the same conclusion as many of Remnants' greatest thinkers, Including her own father.

"I don't know if I agree with him?" a third voice chimed in. Blake hadn't heard it before but she didn't move into the room that they were in to see who it was.

"People are at their core good but they can be pushed to evil when acted on," the voice continued.

"So what your saying is that something out of the individual's control is what dictates right and wrong and that if that thing didn't exist then their idea of right and wrong wouldn't exist either." Jaune countered.

"That's worth thinking about," the third voice said.

Jaune could be heard standing up as he said. "That should do it for now. I need to go look for Blake apparently she has run away."

Shiro could also be heard standing up asking. "Can I borrow that book?"

Jaune responded with "Sure in fact I think that you might like to read what's on page 762"

Blake was still hiding from the outside of the when Jaune walked out of the nearest gateway and looked at her. He leaned in close and whispered "I am going to wait for you at the docks. I will also be going back to my dorm in about three hours. If you still want to run off then you can but you need to think about it"

With that he headed off to take his vigil leaving Blake with her thoughts. What if Weiss was just like man from the poem. She had only ever known evil. That plus her own nature would make anyone into a monster.

She needed to think about things but she didn't get the chance to since she heard Shiro reading again.

Love

loves purpose, what would it be

who would want such an absurd thing as love

But when you look and think, I hope that you will see

that Love was the greatest of gifts given by the Lord up above

it makes the sane go insane

turns smart men stupid

the true form's power is strong whether on your hands and knees or walking with a cane.

the only two who escape its power live with the pain of the wound or lose the soul that they hid.

love, what purpose could it have

All the pain it can cause

Why would any every chose to enter the embrace of a burn for which there is no salve

would you ask a knight to battle with no armor, or a carpenter to work with no saws.

what is love purpose, are we to always to look upon its secrets like peasants upon wizardry

that question has but one answer. it is meant to bring peace and order to our savagery

Blake found herself leaning close to the shrubbery in order to hear more clearly. For better or worse Shiro seemed to have a voice that was meant for reading. When he was done Blake was in awe. She at first failed to even remember what he had read.

When she heard him moving she quickly hid behind a corner of the garden. As he was passing by she felt a branch snap under her foot. Just as Shiro's gaze snapped to where she had been hiding she managed to get her footing onto silent ground and lurched back out of sight.

Holding very still Blake prayed that Shiro wouldn't investigate the sound. When he turned back to the path and left she let out a breath she didn't know she was holding.

Now that she was alone she finally thought about what Shiro had read. It had taken her a moment to remember what the moral had been when she had read it with her father years ago. Then she had thought that love made you weak, less than you could be.

Her father had said otherwise and now with the wisdom that comes only with experience she knew that he was right. Love was what made man into something more than a savage beast acting on every instinct.

But the more she thought the more it worried her. Did that mean that Adam had a path back to being a good person.

Blake knew that her ex-boyfriend was far from stable but if love's purpose was to calm the very anger that seemed to be ruling his life had she in effect made him into a worse person when she left him.

Adam had become a monster but he wasn't always like that. He started his journey with a heart of gold. He wanted to save the world but after a while he saw how awful the world really was and decided that it wasn't worth saving.

If Blake saw all the awful things that Adam has done and decides that he wasn't worth saving was she any better than him.

Blake knew that parsing out the right and wrong of her ex-boyfriend was not going to get her anywhere right now she turned to her next problem. Weiss, if she ran away would she do to Weiss what Adam had done to the world.

She may not be able to help Adam but she could still try to help Weiss. With a new determination Blake returned to her dorm and opened the door. When her team saw her they all started to talk but Blake ignored them all. Instead she walked straight up to Weiss and threw her arms around the Schnee Heiress.

"I know that we don't agree on a whole lot but I know that the problem with this world is that too many people don't try to love each other enough they grit their teeth dig their heels in without trying to help one another.'' She didn't know when she started to cry but that didn't matter. Something seemed to register with Weiss because somewhere along the way she started to cry and wrapped her own arms around Blake.

This turned into a group hug where Ruby somehow weaseled her way into the middle and Yang wrapped her arms around everyone. They stayed like that for a while they were going to have to do a lot of work to fix their broken team but they just might be up to the task.


	6. Chapter 6

Team SNOW was in the process of training their individual skills. Naomi was off in the firing range in order to practice his crossbow skills, Olivia was sparring with Willow and Shiro was firing off his best set of switch kicks at the punching bag.

When thrown properly it allowed him to hit the liver of any human like enemy with great force. while he was doing this he heard the sound of an argument starting.

When he turned he saw Weiss Schnee doing her best to get in the face of Cardin Winchester who was several feet taller than her. Shiro couldn't hear the words but he had a gut feeling that Blake who was behind Weiss was the catalyst for this situation.

Not wanting this to get out of hand any more that it already had Shiro approached the fight and said. "That's enough everyone just go your separate ways." he did his best to sound like he was in charge.

It didn't help much but it did seem to shift Cardin's focus from Weiss and Blake to him. After a moment he recognized Shiro from initiation. "What the fuck do you want you fucking pussy. You watch my friends die in the forest and now you're poking your nose around."

Shiro was about to try and counter that when the professor overseeing the room today being Professor Port entered the conversation. "Boys, if you want to fight get into the sparring ring and settle on some rules."

Cardin growled and headed for the boxing ring and grabbed a set of gloves. He started prowling back and forth in the ring looking like he was waiting to pounce. Without a word Shiro put on a similar pair of gloves and headed in to face him. Shiro saw Jaune standing just outside the crowd.

He had a look on his face that didn't inspire confidence in Shiro. Sure enough once the portly professor signalled that it was time to fight Cardin lashed out fast grabbing Shiro by the left arm and pulling with his right.

As Shrio fought to regain his balance Cardin slipped his left arm around the inside of Shiro's left leg lifting him in a fireman's carry. While Shiro was trying to think of a way to get free Cardin shifted his right hand from Shiro's arm to his neck, and shifting his left arm from around Shiro's leg to his belt line.

With a light grunt Cardin pressed up and after he had Shiro effectively dangling from almost eleven feet into air he slammed the ragdolled boy into the mat with a tremendous thud.

Shiro didn't feel the impact and the last thing he saw was one of Cardin's fist coming for his face.

…

As Shiro opened his eyes he had to close them immediately as the lights were too bright for him to keep them open. When he tried to sit up he felt his whole body protest, mostly in his back.

"Ah, you're awake." Shiro slowly opened his eyes to see Jaune sitting in a folding chair next to the hospital bed that Shiro was in. When Shiro looked around he saw that Willow was asleep in the chair that had been placed in the room.

Once more he tried to move but this time he was able to get a few inches up before his back started to spaz. He fought the yelp of pain that he felt but still ended up groaning loud enough to wake up Willow.

Before she could speak Jaune did. "Cardin messed you up pretty good, your aura has been hard at work repairing your face so it hasn't gotten to your back yet. The doc says you should be back on your feet in about a day or two."

"That was stupid what you did!" Willow snapped.

Switching from brother to sister Shiro said. "I would agree with you but I can't remember what actually happened."

Jaune laughed and a chill ran down Shiro's spine. "You got your ass kicked by Cardin Winchester, the two time Valetian no holds barred wrestling champion" Willow continued.

At the mention of his credentials Jaune huffed. "Please he was practically handed those two years. The three best fighters were banned from competing." shaking his head and getting back on topic Jaune explained. "He slammed you and killed your arua and then he started to punch you and almost killed you. He did in fact break your face."

Shiro brought one of his hands up to his face to feel for any damage but felt none. Then he remembered what Jaune had said earlier about his arua repairing his face first. "How long have I been here?" he asked.

"Two days," Willow said. Then without a moment's pause Jaune picked up saying. " And three hours"

Shiro's head still hurt so the fact that the twins were now trying to mess with him by finishing sentences made him offer a single finger in response. Jaune laughed him off saying. "Don't worry about your team. I'll keep an eye on them until you are back on your feet." before he put down the book that he had loaned Shiro and left the room.

"Where's Winchester?" Shiro asked, he was eager for payback as soon as he could stand.

Willow chuckled and said "He was expelled for trying to kill you while he was still on the stretcher."

He was gonna ask what happened to him when Willow played a video of Cardin standing over him about to kill him when Jaune stepped in from behind. He grabbed Cardin's chambered left arm and performed an arm throw that tossed the large boy onto his face.

While Winchester was still face down Jaune locked in a left hammer lock. When Cardin tried to turn away from it to his right he ended up in half guard bottom just in time for Jaune to release his right hand and snake it over Cardin's left shoulder.

Once Jaune's right hand grabbed Cardin's wrist it was over. He pulled with all his strength and dislocated the shoulder as well as destroyed all the tendons at the same time. While Cardin was still screaming Jaune smoothly shifted into a kneebar and dislocated the knee as well. The video ended with Jaune calmly standing up and walking away from the still screaming boy.

Shiro was going to say something but before he could Willow stood up. "You need to rest so I will leave you to it." she left and Shiro thought about the fact that Jaune had no reason to go after the knee unless he was trying to send a message.

Lying down he closed his eyes and hoped that when he opened them he would feel better.

…

Shiro woke up when he heard someone try and sneak into his room. He was about to alert the nurse when he saw who it was. He wasn't sure why Blake was sneaking into his hospital room this late but he didn't care. She wasn't a threat so he relaxed.

When he heard the sound of pages being turned he knew that Blake had either brought her own book or was reading the own that Jaune had left him. What he didn't expect was for her to read aloud.

Foolish courage all

Warrior's wisdom grants gaul

Makes one's enemies fall

It was simple Haiku from ancient Mistrial but it was nice to hear, not wanting to disturb her Shiro decided to let her keep going.

Courage, the shield of the soul

The mark of the brave as red as coals

There was many who escaped it

Too many who in the moment chose to simply sit

Courage is not a lack of fear

It is the act of strength when death draws near

As she read Shiro drifted off glad for the company and greatly appreciating the reading.


	7. Chapter 7

As team SNOW minus the "S" made their way to the landing pad they saw that team JNPR was already waiting for them. The first sign that there was a problem was when they noticed that everyone was wearing dark colors and Pyrrha had placed a sound suppressor on the end of her rifle.

Willow looked at her brother for a moment before she turned back to her team. "I might have forgotten about the fact that this is a night op" she said.

There was a set of groans and grunts from her team who were not dressed for such events but still had to get on the bullhead since there wasn't enough time for them to change. As they left they didn't see the drone that was being launched from Beacon to follow them.

..

They deboarded in silence the mission had been a failure and it had almost cost them dearly. Team JNPR headed for the infirmary. Nora had a new scar across her right shoulder, and Jaune had to get his hands put into a cast.

Once they had gotten Nora situated Jaune went to get his hands wrapped. Thanks to his aura all he needed was simple but firm wrappings of cloth to keep the bones in the right spot while they healed.

One his way to his room to get the wraps he passed by Shiro who called out. "Jaune, come here!"

Jaune knew that Shiro was serious by his tone so he chose to listen. When Jaune stepped into the room Shiro took one look at his hands and asked "what happened to your hands?"

Doing his best not to growl, Jaune answered. "You know full well what happened to my hands."

Shiro was about to respond when instead of speaking he decided to nod in agreement. Shiro had seen the entire operation from his hospital bed. Ozpin had given him the control for the drone. Which really meant that he gave orders and the drone did all the flying.

During the recon mission Olivia had been compromised and an immediate retreat was called by Jaune but it was too late. Team JNPR was already inside the compound and they needed to fight their way out. Ren managed to somehow sneak out on account his being a ninja, Nora was thankfully close enough to the exfil point that she didn't have far to go but she still took some shrapnel from a grenade.

Pyrrha made it out fine but that was why Shiro had called Jaune in. two men had both tried to shoot Pyrrha and Jaune. In response Jaune grabbed both guns by the muzzle and forced them away. He also got shot in both hands. His aura blocked the rounds but he still broke all the bones.

What Shiro saw next would stay with him for the rest of his life. The man who had tried to shoot Jaune was promptly thrown with an excellent hip toss that knocked the air out of the man followed by Jaune kicking him to keep him down.

The one who tried to shoot Pyrrha wasn't as lucky Jaune shot a double on him ducking under his muzzle in order to slam the man into the ground. While in full guard top Jaune grabbed the man's left hand and tucked it under his own back. Performing a semi guard pass the bandit tried to get to his feet only to be dragged to his hands and knees.

Jaune smoothly slipped his left leg between the man's and triangled them dragging the attacker's right leg away from his body. As he did this Jaune's right hand went to a half nelson position and his left went under the man's body to lock with his right on the back of the man's neck. In a single savage motion Jaune cranked and broke the man's neck.

Untangling himself from the now dead body Jaune sprang back to his feet and kept moving.

"Does she know?" Shiro asked. He was talking about Pyrrha. She hadn't seen Jaune stop or deal with the two men. In fact she hadn't even seen the bandits.

"Know what?" Jaune countered.

They both knew what Shiro was getting at. Jaune had disabled the man that was a threat to him but he made a fact of brutally killing the man who threatened Pyrrha. There weren't too many reasons for such a severe increase in his aggression.

A subtle smirk crossed Shiro's face as she said. "I'll take that as a no."

"Does Olivia know?" Jaune asked in response. What Jaune meant was that the man who spotted Olivia had just enough time to raise the alarm before he was shot by the 308 rifle mounted to the drone.

Shiro shrugged. "She knows that she had overwatch, I don't know if she knows who it was." as they spoke Shiro looked into the hallway and saw someone leading to him asking Jaune. "I thought Oliva made it back alright?"

Turning to check the hallway, Jaune saw Olivia in the room across the hall getting her right hand wrapped in a temporary cast. "She did." Jaune answered moving to get some answers.

"What happened to you? Jaune asked, trying to sound sympathetic.

"You know exactly what happened to me, your damn monk broke my wrist." She snapped.

Jaune had a feeling that Ren was less than happy with Olivia but he wasn't under the impression that he would ever act like this. "you're the one who tried to attack him." Naomi chimed in.

Olivia seemed displeased with Naomi's words but also seemed to agree with her.

The matter having been addressed. Jaune returned to Shiro who had somehow fallen asleep in the less than two minutes that Jaune left.

With a slight shake of his head Jaune went back to his dorm. He didn't see Ren but that was to be expected. Nora was staying in the infirmary overnight so that was where Ren was staying too.

Pyrrha was sitting at her desk, Jaune couldn't tell what she was doing but he needed to talk to her. Before he could she spoke."I know what you did to those men today." she sounded down and Jaune could tell why.

Jaune had killed a man because he was going to shoot at her. She was still trying to handle that fact. And Jaune wasn't aware that she had even seen what happened. He wanted to say something but he didn't have any idea what to say. He had killed before and he was probably gonna kill again.

He gently set on his hands on Pyrhha's shoulder. "You didn't have to kill him." she whispered. "You could have just disabled him like you did the other one. So why did you kill him?" Jaune was about to try and talk his way out of answering her question when she cut him off. "You're my partner if you have an issue about killing without reason then I deserve to know."

Her tone was stern so he knew that he needed to answer. :I don't really want to talk about it." The look she gave him told Jaune that he needed to give her a better answer than that. "I kinda saw red for a few seconds. I don't really know why I did it"

"Don't you dare lie to me" Pyrrha interrupted. "Over the past four weeks you have never done a single thing without reason so why did you kill him and why are you trying to avoid answering."

Pyrrha was getting more and more worked up with each second and it made Jaune look away and mutter. " I would never be talked to like this at home,"

"Well then maybe you should go back there!" she spat.

"That;s not what I meant," Jaune said. "I appreciate it, I really do. Back at home I am something of a big deal, my father is the head of the family and I am the only son. Every one but my father mother and sisters does exactly as I say and looks at me like some kind of fucking prince."

Pyrrha was stunned. She had never thought she would say the words she was about to say but that didn't stop her. "I know how you feel, I really do. Being a multiple time undefeated champion everyone puts me on this pedestal. The only people who are willing to talk to me tend to want to use me and the only people who wouldn't try and use me don't think of themselves as worthy of talking to me."

There was an uneasy silence that fell over the room. There was a lot that was being left unsaid but Pyrrha had a pretty good idea what it was. She snaked one of her hands from her desk to the hand that Jaune had on her shoulder.

Turning to look at him for the first time in the conversation they shared an unspoken sentence in that moment. A look that shared more than words ever could.

…

Nora was awakened when she felt someone move her blankets. She was still in the infirmary so they could keep an eye on her wound's healing. But she knew who it must have been. Ren. he was the only one who would bother sneaking into her room.

When she felt his arms wrap around her and curl up to her back she knew for a fact that it was Ren. Nora felt Ren's face press into the small scar on her right shoulder. When she felt him start to shake and silently cry into her back she laced her fingers through his and did her best to comfort him.

She and Ren were all that they had left in life so the fact that Nora could have been hurt today had sent him through a loop she understood that about him. Just like she understood most everything else about Ren.

Ren had settled down and by now was on his way to sleeping. She leaned her head back and set herself into the curve of Ren's body. Sleep was a welcoming Idea so she settled her mind and decided to go back to sleep.


	8. Chapter 8

Junior was doing paperwork for the week's purchases and sales when he felt one of his tattoos started to glow. It was a signal that he had hoped he would never receive again. With a tired sigh he rose to his feet and began putting on his shoulder holster.

"Mel, Mal, come for a second!" he yelled. Snuggly fitting his concealed carry gun into the holster he put on his jacket just as his twin daughters walked in. Not waiting for them to say anything he explained the situation to them. " Girls, I need to go for a trip. It could be a few hours, it could be a few days or longer. I need you two to stay here and run the bar for me."

Melanie looked worried but not willing to argue with her father about the matter but Miltiades did not share that trait. She was too much like him in that sense. "Where are you going?" she demanded"

Junior needed a second to come up with a response but he masked that by pretending to look for his gloves. Once he "found" them he responded. "A few people from my past have called me for help. I need to check on them".

They both looked for his bat and when they saw it leaned in its usual spot they relaxed a little. If he wasn't bringing his main weapon then it wasn't anything dangerous. In truth it was extremely dangerous. The call he had gotten was from the Grimbane Brotherhood.

They had been founded countless lifetimes ago in an age that most weren't aware of. They had records from the days when men used magic and the brothers lived on Remnant.

Along with the brothers came their creations. The only one of note to the brotherhood was the dark one. He created the first Grimm. And it was him that the brotherhood first rebelled against.

It goes without saying that rebelling against a God didn't go over too well but the light brother forbade their total destruction. They chose to lick their wounds but it was of little consequence. A second rebellion had been held shortly after. And as recompense the brothers had wiped all life from earth.

In the eons that followed the old forts had been hidden from all. Until one day an Archeologist known now as the "father" discovered the former headquarters of the Grimbane Brotherhood. His whole team thought that the discovery was somehow supernatural as no knowledge of the past world had survived the brothers' purge.

In truth the majority of the brotherhood buildings had been deliberately hidden from them. A fact that many within the brotherhood originally thought impossible. After all the brothers were gods they were all-knowing. Or so it was thought, in truth the brotherhood had inadvertently disproved much of Remnants history by proving that the brothers were in fact not gods. Merely powerful beings.

When the father found this he made the same choice that every member of the Brotherhood made. The brothers, the false-gods, could never be allowed to return. As his studies of the site deepened he managed to convince his colleagues of this fact. Once he had done that they made the second choice. The Grimm were an ancient evil that needed to be battled.

In the way of the first Brotherhood they knew that open warfare with the Grimm was futile. There would always be more creatures of darkness. This war needed to be fought from the shadows.

It was for that reason that the Brotherhood has always operated in secret. None outside the Brotherhood knew of its existence. Not even their enemies.

Getting into his car Junior took a moment to remember the road to the meeting place. Once his route was planned he made his way there making sure to watch for any tails. The warehouse seemed like it was a Schnee storehouse, which it was.

Junior still remembered how he had entered the Brotherhood. He was a Vale patrol officer at the time. His fourth year on the job. He got a call about a suspicious person. Normally it would have been just another case of an older person who had forgotten to take her meds seeing the men that could dig through the ground or walk through walls.

When he reached the location he saw Jaques Du'frey. The man was most certainly lost since he was in a major Faunus ghetto. It was true that Jaques had yet to become the CEO of the SDC but he was still a well known member of the company's "production division" which was just a code word for he was good at controlling the workforce with well crafted words and well used threats.

"Sir, I think that you may be lost," he had said.

When Jaques turned to look at him and said. "I am not the lost one officer Xei '' it had surprised and scared him. That was the night that he had joined the Brotherhood. Willingly of course they never approached anyone unless they were certain about the outcome.

Since then Jaques had taken over the entire SDC and as a result many of their meetings were held in SDC facilities. The door was unlocked but that wasn't too strange. When Junior found the meeting room he opened the door to see Jaques Schnee, Peter Port, Bartholomew Oobleck, James Ironwood, and the Brother that would have most confused any outsider who had happened to find the meeting Adam Tauras.

If Adam had met Jaques at any other time then he would have tried to kill him. After all, they hated each other. But they knew that the safety of Remnant was more important than their personal opinions.

"I was out, why the fuck did you call me back in!" Junior demanded.

It was Peter who answered. "We have information that Salem is planning to move on Ozpin. She is planning an attack on Vale and we need your help to thwart it."

When he heard that name of the queen of the Grimm Junior set aside his frustrations and took a seat. The Brotherhood had discovered the hidden war between Ozma and Salem lifetimes ago when a brother had been brought into Ozpin's employ. Ever since then at least one of the many assets on Ozma's side of the war was a Brotherhood plant. At the moment that plant was James Ironwood.

"What's the situation?" Junior asked.

"She has me and my soldiers preparing to attack Vale in conjunction with a grimm attack." Adam said.

"What's Roman's involvement?" Junior asked. He was trying to get up to speed on the situation.

"Working with her but he doesn't know who she is, at least not fully." Adam continued.

Roman was an important person in the matter. He was once considered for entry into the Brotherhood but they deemed him too self-centered. If they could sway him then it would be a powerful ally taken from their enemies.

"My army is already on its way." James offered.

"There is a plan in place to turn your army against you." Adam countered.

James nodded and went back to thinking. If he was going to have to deal with that he would need to back date some reports and quietly buy some new tech.

"An attack of this size must have a staging area?" Port added.

"Mountain Glenn," Jaques cut in speaking for the first time. He was the oldest brother and as such matters on the brotherhood were often decided by him. While it was true that there were no true rules of the brotherhood. That was due to the fact that the father had known that any rule would eventually be used by their enemies knowingly or otherwise.

Looking at the map on the table they saw the failed settlement of Mountain Glenn. A recon team from Beacon had been engaged in the area and now there was a second team being sent. Adam nodded before saying. "That explains a few things." Once he had everyone's attention he continued. " My men have been ordered to gather large amounts of digging supplies and explosives. I had assumed that it was for demolition work but that might not be the case."

Reaching out he interacted with the map. Using the radar function he showed the radar scans of the area. There was a series of underground tunnels that lead all over the place and one that lead directly into Vale.

"We can't stop them," Jaques said. "If we show our hand to them now it will be too much for them to ignore later, instead we will be ready for them. James I want you to make ready your specialists. When the attack on your army is performed I want you to let it proceed but use your men to solve the problem."

James nodded in agreement before Jaques turned to Oobleck. " Your students need to avoid the operation in Mountain Glenn. If they find their way into the mix help them but don't go looking for trouble."

"Understood" Oobleck responded.

" Junior, I need you to keep your ear to the ground for anything about the white fang and grimm you are our source to the arms trade." with the final orders given he looked around and asked. "Any other plans?"

It was an honest offer if anybody had a better plan he wanted to hear it. That being said nobody had anything to offer so they kept their silence. That is until Peter port chimed in. "I would like to offer a new addition to the Brotherhood," reaching out he placed his scroll on the link point sending a profile to the map screen.

"Jaune arc, if he is anything like Jerimiah he would be a valuable asset" Peter explained.

"Needs thought but it is worth noting" Jaques said.

Their business concluded they all rose from the table and left going their separate ways. When Junior got back he saw his daughters both running the bar with ease. He knew that if he was getting back into Brotherhood work then it may be best if he stayed away for a while. It broke his heart to admit it but his little girls had grown up and now they didn't need him to watch over them every day.

Driving back to one of his old safehouses Junior went inside. He found his old safehouse in need of a lot of dusting. That being said he hadn't been here in almost two decades to all things considered it was in great shape.

It was time to get back to work.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

The attack came fast, team RWBY had failed to even discover the train bourn bomb but once it detonated beacon mobilized quickly. Not as quickly as Junior though. He found that the attacks were surrounding a large number of known white fang hotspots but there was one that was oddly quiet. The rest had fang soldiers coming out of the woodwork to help stop the grimm before the hunters could arrive.

That would earn them some favor from the locals and would set Ironwood on edge. That is it would until Junor made his move. The one spot that was oddly quiet was most likely where everything was being run out of.

Doing a final press check on his pistol Junior headed out making sure not to be too obvious about himself in spite of the chaos it was still a good idea to avoid drawing attention. On his way there he saw that Jaune Arc was leading his team in the city square.

Junior took note of the boy's blatant skills under pressure on display with the way that he was giving orders during the battle. That noted he moved on. The hotspot looked deserted, that was bad. When he took a moment to look further he found several sentries that had been killed. Most had been stabbed but a few had been slashed and some had clearly broken necks.

Worried that he wasn't the only person here for intel Junior thought to screw the superssor onto his pistol. He hoped that he didn't need to use it. If he did then he had already failed but if that happened then he wanted to be ready to kill fast and quiet.

He moved inward slowly and deliberately. He soon found himself on the roof looking down through and open window. That was where he saw the perpetrator of the sentires' demise. She was covered in a helmet and armor but a head of short hair was visible. He had a boy with silver hair pinned under her.

She was recording the planning room and once he pulled out his scroll he was too. He made a fact of not actually listening to the conversation in the room as he needed to keep his focus on the woman. She had who Junior had now confirmed was Mercury Black pinned by a hammerlock and with a knife to his throat he wasn't going to be making much noise.

When she moved he hid from her and thankfully she didn't try to leave the way she came in. in less than an instant Mercury was up and after her, he failed to alert the other most likely to save his pride. Not that it mattered here was a golden chance for Junior to take a prisoner and that was what he was gonna do.

Following them was easy enough. They were playing cat and mouse in the back alleys of Vale but they didn't know this city like him and they also failed to look up. That being said catching the son of Marcus Black unaware without alerting the third party was no mean feat.

A feat that he accomplished when the woman made an attempt to escape. She was going up and Junior saw the route that Mercury was going to take to follow her. He got ahead of the boy and waited on the roof for him.

Just as Mercury cleared the roof Junior pounced. He dove forward tackling the young man through the window one story down on the other side of the alley. They crashed to the floor but Mercury had a much larger man land on him so he had the wind knocked out of him.

While he was still trying to get back to his feet Mercury was cracked with a savage elbow that knocked him into unconsciousness. Throwing the body over his shoulder Junior made sure to travel only using alleyways back to his safehouse.

When Mercury woke up he was tied to a chair and his legs weren't working. "Good morning, you and I need to talk."

When he looked at the speaker he saw a large man with a Balaclava on. Before Mercury could respond he was hit with a spearing left body hook. To say that getting punched in the liver was painful would not be untrue but it would be an understatement.

Had he not been tied to the chair Mercury would have fallen onto the ground writhing in pain. Now he was writhing in pain while tied to a chair. Not a big difference if he were being honest but he still would rather be able to go fetal and protect his liver from further damage.

"Name's, I want them. Who is running this show?" the man asked. Mercury was about to say something when the man hit him with a second body hook this time on the left side of Mercury's body.

It was less painful but still unpleasant. "You took too long, who's in charge?"

Knowing that he was going to break eventually and honestly if this man wanted to go after Cinder he was welcome to her. Mercury had heard of people like her and the sooner he was away from her the better. "Cinder Fall, about five foot seven barefoot maybe a hundred pounds and painfully hot."

His interrogator nodded before he asked. "What's the plan, you have to know it?" Mercury thought about lying but then he remembered how much his liver hurt so he chose to not do so. "We are gonna sabotage the Vytal festival." the more that Mercury thought about it the more he wondered if he was going to be alive in the next few minutes.

"Sooo you're gonna let me go now right?" He asked, his hopes weren't that high but he still had to try.

"Yes actually" wasn't an answer that he was expecting. "But you aren't going to be telling anyone about our chat. If you do I will be paying Ms. Sustari a rather unpleasant

Visit"

Mercury heard Emerald's name and froze, an unnerving chill ran down his spine. He wasn't sure why but the thought of this man doing this to Emerald filled him with an unholy rage and fear.

Seeing the look on his face change the man said "Struck a nerve have I, well that's good to know" he cut the ropes holding Mercury in place and explained. "Your legs will reactivate in about ten minutes. Once that happens return back to your boss and tell her that you ran the intruder off."

With that he walked out of the room and headed back for his safehouse. Once he was inside he used his scroll to call Jaques. "I know when they are planning to attack but I doubt it will plan to hit the Vytal festival. I think they will have to move up their time table after tonight. They don't know that I was involved but they know that they were infiltrated. I think it was one of Ozpin's people, a woman in her late thirties, light build. Not a lot I can say beyond that." his message given he was about to sign off when he said. "When this war leaves Vale I am out, and I want to take two people with me." Jaques' intrigued look told him he needed to go further. "Mercury Black and Emerald Sustari." Jaques nodded in approval before he ended the call.

Junior sat down on the end of his bed and almost called his daughters. He was worried about them, they would be fine of course but that had no bearing on whether or not he worried about them. It wasn't easy but he closed his scroll and went to bed.

It was time for his little girls to live without their father standing behind them watching their backs. He knew it, they knew it, but that did little to lessen the sting of what he was getting ready to do.

He was going to have to leave them for a lot longer than he was first thinking.

…

Team JNPR was having lunch with team SNOW and it wasn't lost on anyone that Jaune and Pyrrha were holding hands. They were still missing team RWBY when their seats were taken by a team of four boys, the apparent leader of which was now doing his level best to flirt with Noami who seemed to want no part of him.

Or at least she was trying to tell him that. Her team noted that she was also turning to face him more. This combined with the way she had shifted her voice to a slightly high pitch queued them in to the fact that she was trying to make him work for it.

It also made Oliva roll her eyes in frustration. "Stop playing hard to get or he'll just give up!" she groaned causing the leader of the other team to light up with enthusiasm and Naomi to start glaring at her partner.

"So uhm there's the big vytal festival coming up, are you gonna be fighting in that?" he asked. Before anyone could answer there was a loud siren that was recognized as the call to arms. There was a major Grimm attack inside of Beacon's perimeter so the students were being mobilized.

The odds of a first year team being sent into high risk zones were low but they were still required to get involved in the battle wherever they could. This was a simple matter for most but in cases of Jaune and Pyrrha there were a few more steps.

Jaune needed to get his armor fitted and while Pyrrha didn't have as much armor to wear she did still need to put it on. The rest of them could fight in their uniforms. So as Jaune and Pyrrha ran for the armory everyone else went for the bullhead bay.

Their lockers were launched and waiting for them with their birds which made deployment that much faster. The team of boys headed out immediately with team SNOW but Ren and Nora waited for their team leader.

It wasn't a long wait and they made up for their late entry by jumping from their Bullhead in order to make a faster arrival. Along with making an amazing entrance they also arrived before team SNOW.

They got to work with Jaune giving orders and the rest of his team obeying. It doesn't take long for them to contain the city square. Team SNOW arrived soon after and got to work cleaning up the Grimm inside the city square.

Once that had begun Jaune got word that team CFVY was taking care of the six block radius to their west. With that in mind Jaune used his new armor's comms system to be patched into Coco's bluetooth.

"Hello, I'm kinda busy, what do you need, kid?" her question was muffled slightly by the sound of gunfire from her minigun but she was still intelligible.

" I have a small cluster of Grimm to your east. Mind if we drive them into your area on our way to assist with your objective?" he hoped that his request was going to be well received. This was his first time interacting with the second year team but he knew that if Coco Adele didn't like you then life at Beacon could get challenging.

"Go for it pretty boy, I'll meet you at the corner of 5th street and 19th ave. just make sure that all of your people are off the street." the response was just as drowned as the first but thankfully it was just as understandable.

Switching back to group comms he began giving orders and hoping that Shiro didn't mind too much. ""Shiro I need you at the north east corner of the square, Willow, south east. We need to push the Grimm to my position. Nora, you and Ren need to get onto the roof of the dinner and hide. Ren I need you to conceal Nora from the Grimm. Everyone else keep going but push the grimm to me."

He heard a few affirmative responses from his team and after a few seconds Shiro shot back. "Alright, I'm trusting you on this. You heard the man let's do this."

Shrio began to use his sword to send out arcs of fire dust to back up the Grimm while Willow used her semblance to project her blade out several more feet achieving the same thing. Looking Shiro saw that Jaune was standing next to the building that Nora had just carried Ren onto. Once the Grimm had moved in Jaune's direction the Arc warrior took off his helmet and … roared. Or at least that was what it sounded like he did. He would need to ask about that later but for now it had worked. The Grimm seemed personally offended or at least as personally offended as the embodiment of malice can a the notion that they were being challenged. This led them to all charge Jaune and when he ran down the street they followed.

Just as the last grimm had made its way into the street Jaune put on his helmet and said. "Nora nothing gets past you,"

Shiro heard a sound that was most likely Nora laughing at the fact that she was being given permission to use her grenade launcher with reckless abandon followed by the sound of her using her grenade launcher with reckless abandon.

…

Coco was waiting for Jaune to bring her the Grimm when she saw him running at her down the street being followed by almost fifty Grimm. She also saw one of his teammates on the roof of a nearby building with what seemed to be a rotary grenade launcher. She was still trying to fully catch the plan while spooling up her minigun when she realized that the building across the street from the girl with the grenade launcher had just been blown up and crumbled blocking the street.

Jaune had also dropped prone and that opened up a clean shot for Coco who shredded the grimm in record time. Once Jaune stood up he looked around and tried not to seem surprised that his plan worked.

"Good work kid," She offered. "We cleaned up our area and from the sounds of the group comms the battle is over. Let's head back first rounds on me."


	10. Chapter 10

Shiro first though was pain. That was the only thing he was feeling. His head hurt and his muscles ached. That being said while he body was cold his left hand was warm and he had something pleasant under his head.

His right hand wandered around trying to find the pillow he was using. Instead it found an odd thing. It reminded him of an ear but he wasn't certain. The more he felt it the more he liked it. It was warm and a little fuzzy. He was soon gently rubbing it between his index finger and thumb.

When he heard what sounded like a cat he went rigid, at the same time his soft pillow moved and his face dropped to the bed. Realising that something was very wrong Shiro shot backwards reaching for his weapon only to find that he was without it. When he heard the click of a safety being disengaged he turned. To see Blake leveling a pistol at him, she was turning several shades of red and it didn't take Shiro long to figure out why.

They had been sleeping together and he started to play with one of her ears. That fact that she made a sound that in hindsight was most akin to mewling kitten was very embarrassing. It was also very, very cute not that he was going to say that. He was trying to balance not looking terrified of the fact that Blake had a gun trained on his heart with the fact that he was terrified of the fact that Blake had a gun trained on his heart.

He wanted to avoid getting shot but the face he was making wasn't helping. He could feel the grin that spread as Blake started to look more and more flustered. Holding his hands out in a hopefully disarming way Shiro said. "Let's just go our separate ways and act like this never happened. Does that sound good?"

Blake thought about what he said and whether Shiro knew it or not she sensed his fear. That combined with the fact that she had begun to remember what happened the night before seemed to change something in her.

Not lowering the gun in the slightest Blake started walking to Shiro. Only now her flushed face had been replaced with a smile that was almost… predatory. Whatever it was sent a shiver down Shiro spine. A shiver that scared him more because he wasn't sure if it had come out of fear.

What Shiro had forgotten was that last night he and Blake did a lot of talking. Blake was much better about holding her liquor and her tongue than Shiro so by the end of the night she had learned enough about him that she was confident she could get whatever she wanted out of him.

And confident she was as she strolled across the room when she reached him she kept the gun pointed at him and thumb-cocked the hammer. Shiro loved danger and risk, And if the gasp that escaped his lips was any indication then she was right. He had his fun getting her to meow at him and she was gonna get her payback.

Reaching up to whisper in his ear she said. "What's the matter, cat got your tongue?" if Yang ever found out that she made a pun there would be no stopping her but nobody would ever believe Shiro if he told them and that was part of why she did it. Just as he was about to say something Blake pulled the trigger and the hammer dropped on the transfer bar and forced the firing pin to strike nothing but air.

Blake had remembered that the gun was unloaded shortly after she grabbed it, it felt too light. (not that she was going to tell Shiro that. Blake didn't need to look down to know that she had gotten Shiro's "attention".

Looking at the pistol and pretending to be disappointed in its failure to fire she turned and sauntered out of the room. She felt Shiro's eyes moving up and down on her as she did so. That would normally earn him verbal lashing but given the circumstance she could forgive it.

Once she had closed the door she took off for her dorm. She had been acting confident but she was honestly a nervous wreck about everything she just did. She burst open the door to find Weiss sitting at her desk staring at a napkin like it held the secrets to life.

"I don't understand how did she do this?" Weiss asked, looking the napkin over and copying more stuff from it onto a sheet of paper.

Blake was about to ask what Weiss was doing when Ruby explained. "Yang is actually really good at math; she just hates doing it."

Blake looked at the napkin expecting to see a scrawling of numbers. Instead she saw a table of equations. But in the equations where not numbers but names. At the end of each equation was a number and a percent

Seeing that Blake was confused Weiss elaborated. "Yang filled this out last night while you were chatting up Shiro. I looked at it and after a few minutes I noticed that when you cross the back with the names on the front you get solid arithmetic."

Weiss noticed that Blake was still confused so she handed Blake the napkin. Upon turning it over she saw several names and lists of traits they had as well as the effect of those traits on other traits.

At the end of lists there was a series of numbers and symbols. "What the hell is this?" Blake asked. She could tell that Yang had been screening people for something but she couldn't tell what.

There was a knock at the door that drew everyone's attention. It was Shiro and he looked traumatized. "Ruby, I just saw more of Yang, Jaune, and Pyrrha than I ever needed to and I think I need to die for a minute. Blake looked back at the napkin and saw that the equation for Jaune and Pyrrha had been circled. It was also a pretty high number and percent.

Ruby for her part seemed to understand what Shiro meant so she walked over and guided him to her bed before getting him to lay down and gently running her hand through his hair. Blake was confused and then realized that she hadn't seen Yang yet and that she and Shiro had been in team JNPR's dorm.

Heading to Team SNOW's dorm she saw that the door was open and Jaune, Pyrrha, and Yang were all sleeping naked in a pile on the bed. The sheets and blankets were a charred mess off to the side which had been Yang's doing.

Shaking her head in confusion Blake calmly closed the door and returned to her dorm. She was going to let the three of them sort that mess out later. Right now she needed to get back to her room and go from there.

A lot of last night was still blank and she wanted to put the pieces together.

…

Pyrrha woke up with a headache but she got over it when she saw that she was sleeping next to Jaune, she didn't remember most of last night on account of all the drinking that was done. (she made a mental note to "thank" Coco for that later)

A smile crept over her face when she realized that she was sleeping with Jaune. After their little talk she had been thinking alot about her team leader. And the more she thought about him the more she liked the thought of him. It seemed a little cliche but they seemed like they were meant for each other.

He was the only person who understood how she felt. Granted it was for a very different reason than her but all the same he understood her. Her thinking and smiling stopped when she saw that Jaune seemed to have more hair than usual. That was until she noticed that all the extra hair wasn't Jaune's but Yang's.

Pyrrha almost jumped out of her skin when she saw Yang sleeping just to Jaune's right. Pyrrha had draped ehr head over Jaune's chest but Yang seemed content in the little crevice made by his right arm and right side.

It was at this time that Pyrrha also realized that they were all very naked. Now she did jump a little. Yang seemed undisturbed by her actions but she was certain Jaune wasn't. Sure enough when she looked he seemed to be wide awake and doing his best to figure out what he needed to do to handle this situation.

"How long have you been awake?" Jaune asked.

"Maybe a few minutes, I don't really know you?"

"I have been awake for the past," he took a moment to look at the clock on the wall before answering. " seven hours."

Apart of Pyrrha felt bad. He had been sitting here for the past seven hours either trying to figure out what to do or just waiting for them to wake up.

"Why not wake us up?" she asked him.

"Honestly the two of you both looked too damn cute to wake up. Actually looking at Juane for the first time this morning Pyrrha noticed several odd small circles over his chest, and arms.

Like he was reading her mind he explained. "My armor is bolted to my body but that means that I have several screwports. I think those would have made last night's activities very uncomfortable so at some point I took off the armor and installed the fillers."

When he finished speaking Pyrrha started to panic. "Last night's activities." rang in her head. She wasn't completely certain of what happened but if Juane's tone, the fact that she was sore in some very odd places, and of course their collective nakedness left little to be debated.

"I know I spent a few hours panicking just like that, don't worry I think I have a plan." Jaune's voice betrayed just how nervous he was about his "Plan" but that being said the only thing that seemed to be keeping them here was Yang,

Reaching out Pyrrha firmly shoved the sleeping blonde who roused slightly before stretching out and either on accident or purpose nobody knows she used her right hand to push Pyrrha's face away and her left to roll herself up into the space the champion had been occupying

"Morning handsome," she whispered, gently pressing her lips against Jaune's. After a moment she seemed to realize that another person was here and when her head snapped to look at Pyrrha her eyes seemed to widen in shock and fear.

Shock at what most likely happened last night and fear at the fact that a four time mistriallin champion was staring death into her eyes. Yang froze for a moment trying to decide what to do. After some thinking she decided that if she was in for a penny she was in for a pound so she went back to cuddling into Jaune and occasionally kissing the side of his neck.

This put Jaune in a very uneasy situation. He wasn't the most emotionally literate person but he knew that he was in a position to do a lot of damage to both Yang and Pyrrha. True they all put each other in this mess but that didn't change the fact that he seemed to be the object being fought over.

Reaching his left hand over he made a point of rubbing Pyrrha's back between her shoulder blades. This act for some reason alerted the champion to the fact that none of them were wearing any clothes.

Now normally this would turn her into a blushing mess. Incapable of stringing together a complete sentence. But after last night she was surprisingly comfortable in this state, she was fairly sure that Jaune and Yang weren't however and she was going to use that to her advantage.

Getting out of bed she started for the bathroom saying. "I'm taking a shower, feel free to join me." she could feel Jaune's eyes follow her and that was what she was going for. Starting the hot water she made sure to keep the door open hoping to draw someone in.

Yang seemed to think about everything and after a moment she rolled out of bed and said. "I like that idea." before following Pyrrha. Jaune was trying to figure out what he was going to do when a strange man who smelled of liquor burst into the room yelling about how he was here to see his party child niece.

Yang, who had just made it to the bathroom, looked at him and shrieked before running into the bathroom to get a towel.

Jaune didn't know who this man was but Yang was scared of him so that left little alternative on his part. Launching from the bed he wrapped his arms around the man's waist as he sunk his hips and drove with his feet.

This had the effect of Qrow being rammed out into the hallway while he was trying to stuff a takedown from what he could only assume was a buffalo made human. When Qrow felt his back break into the drywall across from the door he posted with his left hand the left side of the Jaune's head planning to crack his right elbow into the back of the boy's neck.

That didn't happen since when he brought his right elbow down Jaune slipped to Qrow's right ending up in a side clinch position which he then used to perform a lateral drop style throw that sent Qrow flying through the air and back into the room they had just left.

Qrow landed and tried to get back to feet but when he was still on his hands and knees Jaune came through from behind snaking his right arm around the inside of Qrow's left leg and driving his shoulder into Qrow's ass breaking down the base that Qrow had and smashing Qrow's face into the floor.

Qrow struggled to his feet only to realize too late that he was being played. With his right hand Jaune lifted and performed a powerful overhand toss sending Qrow crashing back into the floor.

Qrow rolled back to a sprawl and was reaching for his weapon when Jaune kept his chest heavy on Qrow's back and spun to a back side position. Qrow's sword was in his hand when Yang now wrapped in a towel started yelling at them both to stop.

They did but with a clear amount of distrust for each other. After they had taken a few steps away from each other Yang introduced them. "Uncle Qrow this is Jaune, Jaune this is my uncle Qrow.

"Yang," Qrow growled. "Who the fuck is this and why isn't he wearing any clothes?"

Stepping between them Yang crossed her arms and said. "I already told you his name is Jaune and as for why he isn't wearing any clothes, well when I remember all of last night I will let you know."

Qrow looked like he was about to say something when he suddenly realized something more important. Quickly leaning around Yang to see Jaune he asked. "What's your last name son?"

Without hesitation the answer was shot back with pride. "Jaune Micheal Arc"

Qrow's already pale face went even paler. Turning back to Yang he said. "You two had sex last night right?"

Yang shockingly seemed a little gun shy about the whole thing, looking down and refusing to speak so Jaune had to answer the question. "Yes, we did, or at least as far as I can remember."

"Oh Fuck," Qrow muttered under his breath.

"I heard that a lot last night" Jaune said nodding as though he was just starting to remember that part. Turning to Yang he said. "Not from you but still, who would have figured that she'd be the foul mouthed one?"

Yang seemed to agree with him and was about to speak when Qrow interrupted. "You two realy don't understand what you two have gotten yourselves into do you?"

Jaune looked back at Qrow. "I do but I don't think they do, at least not yet."

Yang turned to Jaune with a concerned face and asked. "What do you mean?"

Ignoring her for a second he turned to Qrow and said. "You need to leave."

Not wanting to see what came next or argue with the man who just tossed him like a salad. Qrow left the room and headed to make sure that Ruby was still okay.

"So what do you need to tell me about?" Yang asked.

"Let's see about that shower first," Jaune countered.

…

Shiro was sitting in the cafeteria trying to figure out what had gone on last night. All that he could recall was that he and his team went out drinking with JNPR RWBY and CFVY. by the time they were done he was sloshed and heading back to Beacon.

Everything else was a blur until he woke up with Blake. That whole experience still had him a little shaken. Something about the way that she had held the gun and spoke had gotten his "attention"

Sipping his coffee Shiro did some thinking. He still had to find his team and then he needed to get Jaune, Yang, and Pyrrha out of his dorm. He was also gonna have to burn Olivia's bed but then again Yang had done a decent job of that all on her own.

The horror of seeing his cousin naked hit him again and he almost threw up. What made it worse was the fact that Yang was fucking hot. Sure she was his cousin but that didn't change the immediate thoughts that ran through his mind when he saw her.

His scroll rang thankfully pulling him from his torment. It was Olivia and when he answered she looked like Hell, her hair was a mess and she had a black eye.

"OLIVIA, where are you!" Shiro yelled.

"I'm good. I'm at the 11th Atlas Sky Corps' barracks. I met up with a few of them last night and after a few good rounds in the ring we headed back to the barracks. I'll be home soon," before Shiro could speak she turned to see someone off screen "you want round five bitch BRING IT!" she screamed before hanging up.

Olivia seemed to be okay that left Willow and Naomi. Finding Willow was likely to help find Naomi since Willow was the only one sober last night. Reaching for his scroll he noticed that there was someone sitting at the far table of the cafeteria and upon further inspection he noticed that it was Willow.

Walking over to her he was instantly worried. She looked shell shocked. Her eyes were bulged out and she seemed to be rocking in place slightly. "Willow what's wrong?" Shiro asked. He reached out a hand and gently grabbed one of her's.

"My brother and I have a mental link on account of us being twins." she said hoping that she wasn't going to need to explain any further.

Understanding dawned on him as he figured out that Willow felt all of last night. And she was probably getting some very confusing signals about Yang and Pyrrha. "I understand." Shiro responded giving her hand a light squeeze. "I found the three of them this morning."

"Do you know where Naomi is?" he pressed trying to change the subject.

"She left with that monkey Faunus from yesterday," even though she answered her eyes still looked like they had when he first walked over.

"Willow is everything okay?" Shiro asked, moving his hand up to her shoulder.

She shook her head slightly saying. " I… I… I just need a hug,"

It was an odd request but one that Shiro understood. Ruby also needed such treatment whenever she was shaken. Sitting down next to her he wrapped both his arms around her and much to his shock she managed to weasel her way into his lap before he could figure out what she was doing.

This was even odder but honestly not too out of the ordinarily strange. That was until he noticed that she was wiggling around in a very sensitive spot. Shiro was about to speak when he smelled something.

Alcohol, Willow reeked of it. That didn't make any sense she wasn't drinking last night or at least not that Shiro could remember. He doubted that her link with Jaune was that strong but when he looked at her coffee he had an idea. "Can I have some of your coffee?" he asked.

Without really thinking Willow answered with a little shrug and an affirmative nod. Reaching one of his arms out he picked up the cup and took a sip. Shiro knew coffee and he knew whiskey. Willow's whiskey seemed to have been spiked with coffee. Setting the cup back down, Shiro moved to counter Willow's most recent attempt of wiggling deeper into his lap.

An uneasy feeling crept over Shiro as he leaned back slightly and asked. "Willow is there something on your mind?"

Instead of answering his question she asked her own. "Do you think I'm pretty?" Shiro knew a bear trap when one was set in front of him. There was no way for him to answer that question.

"Is there something you need Willow?" he asked again hoping that if he changed his wording she would give him an answer.

"You would have sex with me right?"

Shiro almost did a spit take with the coffee he had swallowed ten seconds ago. He was ready to hear a lot of things but not that. "Why are you asking?" he countered.

At this point he was in damage control mode. There was no version of this talk that didn't hurt someone. The first thing he needed to do was figure out what he was standing in.

"My brother is falling in love and we have always done everything together so I started thinking about things and well, you're an amazing person. You're funny, and under your shell of bravado you're a good man" as she spoke she was inching closer and even if he didn't want to admit it Shiro wasn't pulling away.

After all, Willow was one of the best people he had ever known. Not to mention she was stunningly beautiful. It was her eyes that he was lost in at the moment. They were captivating, they were also getting closer.

When Shiro felt Willow's lips set against his, he froze. He had kissed a girl of course but that was a one time thing when he and Yang were eight years old and they vowed to never speak of it again.

He was thawed by the sound of a cup crashing to the floor. Turning to see what happened he saw Blake standing there with a look that Shiro could only describe as betrayed. Something was wrong but he wasn't sure what it was. Quickly sliding out from under Willow he sprang to his feet saying. "Blake I don't know what you're thinking but…" Shiro stalled out when he realized that he had absolutely no idea why Blake would look like she did. All they had done last night was talk. It wasn't like he had said or done anything serious.

All at once the fact that he didn't remember all of last night became a very important thing in his mind. What if he had said or something serious. Before he could answer Blake turned away and ran off too fast for him to catch.

That was when he heard Willow making some kind of noise. When he turned around he saw that she was crying. "You love her don't you?" she asked.

Shiro was about to answer with a very confused sound when Willow got up and rang crying in the other direction.

Sitting down uncertain of what to do but getting ready for all Hell to break loose, Shiro was about to reach for Willow's coffee cup when a gruff voice from behind him said. "Don't even think about it"

Before he could see who it was his father's arm reached in front of him and picked up the cup. Taking a whiff of it he muttered. " where did she get this much booze from?" before shotgunning the whole cup.

Taking a seat next to his son Qrow said. "You just stepped in it, I watched the whole thing."

Looking at his father Shiro spat "Really now what gave you that Idea?"

"The fact that you just sent an Arc girl crying and most likely running for her brother amongst other things."

Even as he said them, Qrow's words didn't really register. They were drowned out by the sound of what Shiro could only imagine was a roar from the other end of school. Jaune had seen Willow and got her to say something most likely his name.

"A very angry wrestler who is stronger than he has any right to be is on his way here right now to beat my soul from my body," turning to his father Shiro asked. "Any words of wisdom?"

"Start running," Qrow said.

Shiro was on his feet less than a second later and it was a good thing too since Jaune was now at the main entrance of the cafeteria and was making a bee line for Shiro. The chase was on and thankfully all Shiro had to do was make it to a teacher and he would most likely be saved.

…

It was almost as though whatever supreme force governed the universe had a sense of humor because Jaune was right on Shiro's heel when both boys rounded a corner and ran headlong into Professor Peter Port and Dr. Bartholomew Oobleck.

When Shiro hit Port he simply bounced off the man like he had been a stone wall. Jaune on the other hand barrelled through the space Dr. Oobleck had once occupied. The hyper professor having moved out of the way just in time.

The fear in Shiro's eyes and the death in Jaune's Port asked them "Boys what seems to be the matter here?"

It was Jaune who answered first shouting "Professor, this half hearted mongrel had the audacity to steal my sister's love and then break her heart without a second thought on the matter. I must rip his lungs from his chest and his spine from his back!"

Stepping between the two of them Port said. Alright let's settle this as men should. Leading the boys to a part of the school they had never been to. It was an old service elevator and after prying open a hidden Panel a secret button was revealed. Port pressed the button and they were off to the hidden place of Beacon. "Fort Port"


	11. Chapter 11

The four of them walked over to the counter and in one smooth motion Dr. Oobleck vaulted over and put on an apron. When he grabbed what looked to be a cocktail shaker Shiro spoke up. "Dr. It was Alcohol that started this whole mess. The last thing we need is more of it."

Before he could finish speaking Oobleck had already used the set of metal cups to prepare four vanilla milkshakes that he had also passed out between the group.

Jaune and Shiro were unaware of what to do but after the Dr. and Professor began to drink theirs they chose to do likewise. After everyone had silently enjoyed the Dr. handwork for a few minutes. Port started talking.

"So your three teams all went missing after the battle in Vale. whatever happened to you?" the look on his face made them think that he already knew but he was just trying to get everything set in stone.

"We went out drinking with team CFVY," Jaune answered. Shiro was thinking about interrupting him but in hindsight Jaune had become the de facto leader of all three teams after his plan helped to save the day.

"Ah, I see" Port exclaimed, suddenly understanding what had happened to his students. Leaning in closer he added. "Drinking with team CFVY, and Coco in particular is either very brave or very foolish." returning to his posture the Professor continued. "Well then what next, what do you remember.?"

Jaune almost answered before he remembered his answer. He wasn't sure what the Professor would think of him waking up naked with two women. Port seemed to understand the look on his face and let out a mild chuckle. "Let me guess Ms. Nikos huh."

Looking down trying (and failing) to hide his blush Jaune muttered. "And Yang," at this Port gagged on his milkshake and after he managed to regain his balance and breath he looked at Jaune with eyes so wide that Jaune could actually see them. "Are you saying that you engaged in a night of debauchery with both Pyrrha Nikos and Yang Xiao Long?"

Jaune nodded slightly to give his answer which earned a loud cascade of laughter from the portly professor. "I am amazed that you have survived such an ordeal." Port boomed.

Jaune chuckled, still unable to match the professor's eyeline. "The bed sheets didn't." he said.

Port was about to burst into a second fit of laughter when the door opened and a tall thin man with long blonde hair walked into the room. He had a briefcase in his hand and when he saw Port he nodded saying. "Peter it's good to see you even while on official business."

Upon hearing his voice Jaune sat up straighter seeming to forget his hangover and turned around with an unusual level of grace. "Uncle Jedidiah it's about time you arrived, where you waylaid by customs again?"

Looking to Jaune Jedidiah dipped his head and said. "No, I encountered significant traffic in the city. It seems that half of a block has been destroyed near a major intersection. I heard something about a trigger happy grenadier from Beacon, here you are." as he spoke he set his briefcase on the counter and opened it up handing Jaune a set of papers and a very well crafted pen.

Jaune wasted no time in signing all of them and when he was done he handed everything back to Jedidiah and said. "I don't know where they are but my dorm is probably a good place to start, and please break the news gently."

"Of course sir," with a nod to Jaune and to Port Jedidiah left the room to tend to the rest of his duties.

"Who was that?" Shiro asked, he had never seen the man before but he had acted like he was in some way important.

"My uncle, he has papers that Yang and Pyrrha are going to have to sign."

Shiro's interest was further peaked and so when he looked at Jaune like he had three heads the stoic team leader continued. "Arc's are legendarily verile. The fact that none of us remember using any manner of contraceptive means that in all likelihood one of them is now pregnant. So Jedidiah is bringing them a set of marriage licenses and the other involved forms."

Even after Jaune answered Shiro was still a little confused and shocked. "What? Are you saying that you plan to marry Yang, AND Pyrrha?"

Jaune nodded still looking like he was trying to figure out the best way to handle his new situation. "And if they don't then we're all dead."

Shiro still looked confused so Jaune now a little annoyed elaborated. "My father is a despot and he will not allow anyone to carry Arc blood and not the name. If either of them refuses to sign the papers then he may very well send a team to kill them for refusing and me for failing to convince them."

Shiro was still processing everything when Jaune's scroll started to ring. He answered it and when the video loaded it was Jedidiah. "Good news then both signed the papers. Bad news your sister is crying her eyes out over someone named Shiro, would you like me to find him and…"

Jaune cut him off saying. "No need I am already dealing with the situation." as he spoke Jaune looked back to Shiro with a face that reminded Shiro that he wasn't off the hook but rather under a stay of execution.

"Very well I will report home within the day farwell" with that said the line went dead and Jaune turned back to Shiro giving him his full attention.

"Enough of my problems I still need to kill you for breaking my sister's heart" he growled sliding his milkshake away from him in order to avoid breaking it.

Oobleck interrupted, "there will be no need for that we have yet to hear what Shiro has to say about the matter."

With everyone's eyes now on his Shiro explained everything including what happened with Willow. By the time he was done Jaune seemed a little better but he still wanted to rip him apart so he wasn't super comfortable being within arms length.

"I didn't know that Willow had these feelings if I had then I would have handled the entire incident better," Shiro finished hoping to placate the man who still seemed to want to expose his entrails to the outside world.

"I don't like it but you're being honest so I guess that I am gonna have to accept it. Just make sure you either let her down properly or you give all the love she is due. Anything in between and there is no force on Remnant that can save you from me."

Shiro nodded just as both his and Jaune's scrolls chimed. They answered them at the same time and were both greeted by very different sights. On Shiro's screen he saw Naomi who was sitting in Sun's lap as he fed her forkfuls of pancakes. (the only thing that Sun knew how to make.)

"Hey Shiro I'm gonna be back soon once we finish breakfast just wanted to let you know that I'm still breathing." with that she hung up and that was good since Jaune's scroll was the source of lots of yelling from the sounds of it Yang was unhappy about being told that if she didn't marry Jaune then she was going to be risking getting herself killed.

Jaune was for his part just taking the verbal lashing and nodded at certain parts. It was clear that he was getting more and more frustrated with every passing second but he was trying to be understanding. By the time that Yang was done Jaune looked at her and said. "What in the Hell makes you think that I wanted to marry you anyway. Hell if I could have had Pyrrha and gotten you out of the picture last night I would have."

With that he hung up in spite of the very loud gasp that came from Yang's line. "She's gonna be pissed." Shiro said calmly. He had known Yang for a long time and he knew that what Jaune had just done was a mistake. Yang was probably intending to raise Hell and burn everything between her and him.

"Yeah, and when she gets her head back and learns to treat me like a human being and not a verbal whipping post I'll deal with it." Jaune said. It was clear that he was planning to stay here until he was confident that he could handle Yang's wrath.

Thankfully he was now focused on Yang and not on Shiro so that was gonna have to be the closest thing to a win that Shiro was gonna get. He tried to escape when he felt a hand grab a hold of the back of his shirt collar. When he turned back Jaune was looking at him with the same lethal gaze he had been using for the past twelve minutes. "You have three days to sort your shit out and make sure that Willow knows where she stands. Any longer and you are dead."

Feeling the hand release him Shiro made a fact of leaving as soon as possible. The elevator felt like it was moving too slow but that was just Shiro's intense desire to be as far away from Jaune as possible.

He made his way to the training ring in the hopes that if he did some bag work then he would be able to think of what his next move should be. The world seemed so much simpler when it was just you and the bag.

He found that the heavy bag's were empty and thankfully so was the rest of the room. It seemed that the classes had been cancelled. Probably in order to allow for Beacon's senior students and admin to help repair the city.

He was most of the way across the room when he realized that he was being watched. Looking around he saw that the room was empty of all but him so he didn't think too deep on it. Instead planning to do his practice and move on.

While he was swinging round kicks he felt like he was being watched again. This time when he looked he saw Blake was hiding in the one of the corners. She was what he had felt before but she was still trying to be hidden.

Not wanting to poke an aggravated bear he went back to his strikes. After a while he heard Blake moving. He knew that if he was hearing her then she wanted him to. Turning around to face her. He saw that she had changed from last night something that he had not yet done. He also hadn't gone back to his room yet since the last he was there he found three of his classmates naked in a pile on Olivia's bed.

"We need to talk," she said. It was clear that she was still angry but about what he didn't know. Well not for sure. It was obvious that he had said something last night but beyond that he wasn't sure.

"What about?" even as he asked the question he knew that it was badly worded. He knew that she wanted to talk about but he had simply forgotten everything about the entire incident.

Sure enough she looked more than a little miffed at his question and answered. "Oh maybe the part where you vaguely talked about being in love with me and how you had your partner in your lap literally four hours later."

Shiro was about to answer when what she had said finally clicked. He had talked about being in love with her. That brought up the really good question. Was he?. He hadn't thought about it but he was going to have to if he didn't figure all of this out in the next three days then he was in for at least a world of hurt and at most a casket.

"Blake," Shiro asked, moving a little closer. "What did I say last night?"

Blake's cheeks darkened as she looked down a little. When she spoke she was quiet but Shiro was able to hear her. "You said that I was the most beautiful woman you had ever met. You said that in all the books you've read and all the words you've learned there was nothing that came close and that you would never be able to find enough words to show just how much you loved me."

Shiro had to fight to keep his composure. There was no real precedence for this. In all his years of life. (all seventeen of them) he had never given any kind of thought to what he was going to do if he told a woman that he loved her.

The scariest part was that the more he thought about it the more he remembered all of it. And the more he remembered all of it the more he believed every word of it.

All of the feelings from the night before came back to him at once. It was clear to him that he was in love with her. Blake was there for him when he was in the hospital. That was where he had begun to think more seriously about it. She was many things namely a mystery. Her past and her association with the White fang were murky at best.

But the past was past and Shiro knew better than anyone that just because you came from unclean roots that you couldn't become more. His father used to be a bandit, a Professional. Highwayman. That was until he and his sister were both picked up by Ozpin when they tried to rob him.

The rest of the bandits abandoned them when things went south, Even their own mother. After that Ozpin took them in and practically raised them. It was for that reason that Qrow had such a deep loyalty to the old man. He was the nearest thing that Qrow had to a father.

His aunt went back to the bandit life but his father didn't. Qrow had done a lot of things wrong but that didn't change the fact that he was at his core a very different person from when he was trying to hold up anyone that he could.

Shiro was brought back to the moment when Blake began to awkwardly shuffle her feet in front of him. She was waiting for his response. She needed to know if he really meant what he had said or if that was the booze talking.

To be honest he didn't know it was moments like this that terrified him. He could pretend to be as bold and confident as his father but when it came to matters of love and family he was the fool me twice sort.

After his mother had died giving birth to him his father had fallen apart. That left Shiro's uncle Tai, and credit to him he did most of the leg work in raising Shiro. One day an older man was playing chess in the park that Shiro, Yang, Ruby, and Tai were visiting.

His last opponent had walked away moments before and even though Shiro was only nine he was curious enough to try and play. He had learned the rules from one of the books his father brought him. That was one thing that his father was always good at. Even though he wasn't a big presence in Shiro's life he always made sure that Shiro had a healthy supply of books.

"Hello, my name's Shiro, can I play with you?" The man looked over at Tai and nodded at him. For some reason Tai seemed unhappy about Shiro playing chess with the man but he had settled for keeping an eye on him.

Reaching his hand down the man said. "Hello Shiro, my name's Odin of course you can play." As they played they talked. When the topic of family came up Shiro said that he didn't see his father much. He then explained that the man he was here with was his uncle.

The news was as shocking as Shiro thought it would be. Instead the old man looked at him with crimson eyes and Shiro would always remember what he said. " It only takes a boy to have a child, it takes a man to raise someone else. Your uncle is a good man. But don't think your father doesn't love you. I know better than most that sometimes you love someone but you can't bring yourself to act on it." he leaned in a little closer and continued. "One day you will find yourself on the edge of a cliff. You have to jump and fly in order to reach real love. And the question will be. Do you jump for love and risk falling. Or will you take a step back and stay safe. Never finding family but never falling."

Those words played back in Shiro's mind as he looked at Blake. This was the moment if he jumped for love or stayed for comfort. He wasn't certain but there was always a little bit of doubt in life. The jump was still there he may have a chance but the longer he stayed silent the further away it got.

He looked her in the eye and jumped.

…

Jaune was fairly confident that Yang had cooled down enough to be talking which was good since that was all he was waiting for. He left Fort Port and made his way to the training room. He sent Ruby a text about which training room he was in and set about preparing the ground for the upcoming battle.

He lowered the room temperature by twelve degrees and "borrowed" some water dust from a nearby locker. Just as he was getting into position Yang opened the door.

She was already on fire as she started at him. He stood his ground and just as Yang swung at him he lunged back and threw the water dust in her face. The fire in her hair activated the dust that then put out her hair.

It also sent a wave of cold water down her back which was just the distraction Jaune needed. He rushed in and yanked his right hand down on her left shoulder while he ducked under her now lifted right arm.

He locked his hands around her waist and kept moving in the same circular pattern around her stepping his left foot around and in front of Yang's left leg before he popped his hips and arched his back throwing Yang through the air and landing on her side with Jaune quickly rolling her onto her back straddling her stomach as he dug one of his elbows into the side of her neck.

He froze when he heard her whimper. She was trying to hide it but she was in an immense amount of pain. That pause was what she seemed to be waiting for since she cracked her right hand into Jaune's face and tried to buck her hips to get him off.

Instead he countered the transition by yanking one of Yang's arms forward and rolling her onto her stomach. Taking care to sink both of his feet inside of her legs to keep her from standing up. He wrestled one of her arms behind her back and pinned it into a hammer lock.

He leaned down before deliberately growling into her ear. Based on the little he remembered about Yang from the night before she didn't like to lose but wasn't too stubborn or proud to submit when she knew she was beaten.

When she stopped fighting he let go of her arm but didn't get off of her instead he asked her. "Are we gonna talk now or do we need to keep fighting?"

He knew that it was humiliating for her but that was the point, she needed her ego checked. She had charged in like he was supposed to let her beat him. That wasn't going to happen.

She didn't use her words but she did nod so he made a compromise. Letting go of her arm and rolling off of her he asked. "Alright so what are you really mad about?"

Yang sat up and answered. " I don't like being told that I have to marry someone or die, is that such a hard thing to understand?"

Jaune leaned back before responding. "You'd be right but I can tell there is something else bothering you about this. The only thing that my father cares about is the name and I am fairly certain that Jedidiah told you that. If you wait for a few months and it turns out you aren't pregnant then I can probably talk my father into letting you go from the family."

"So," he said. "What's really bothering you?"

Yang seemed to think about it for a few seconds before she answered. "I'm scared, when I was born my mother ran away, when I was five my second mother died. Ever since then I have been trying to keep from getting attached to anyone."

Jaune reached out a hand and set it on her shoulder. "I have to apologize," Yang seemed a little confused by this so he explained. "When you called me I said some things that I didn't really mean. I lost my temper and I lashed out at you and you don't deserve that."

Yang was even more confused but now it was her turn to talk. "What are you talking about? Everyone knows that you're in love with Pyrrha, I was just a drunken fling."

"No you're not." Jaune responded. "I Love Pyrrha because she understands me. She is the only one who really does. But you, I love you because you are everything I wish I could be. You're powerful, beautiful, funny, and free. I'm strong but I'm bitter, rigid, and frankly have less freedom than a slave."

Yang was speechless. She knew that everything else Jaune had said was important. But Jaune had just said that he loved her. And he meant it, Jaune was many things but Yang had never known him to lie.

There was something about hearing those words that changed a part of Yang. For all of her life she had been worried about loving somebody who was going to leave her and now sitting in front of her was someone that had just opened the door that she was avoiding for all this time.

She wanted to say that it wasn't going to last but Jaune seemed like he was the kind of person to simply not die until he was willing to. She wanted to say that she didn't love him but she knew what she was feeling. It was what she had felt before when she would come home from school and see Summer waiting for her, it was love.

She had every reason to love him and in a way she had loved no one before. All she needed to do was act. And dammit if she was anything it was bold.

…

Blake was in the middle of fighting with Shiro's jacket when her scroll rang. She was going to ignore it but then Shiro's rang too so they both answered. It was Weiss and Ruby respectively, there was a lot of screaming but what could be heard was that Qrow was fighting with Weiss' big sister.

They both took off running. Blake was faster but when she got there she had no way to actually stop the fight. Shiro on the other hand had an excellent plan. He walked in between them both and watched as they both stopped mid swing. He wished that he could say that he did that just to end the fight and not for the sake of looking like a badass in front of Blake. But that would be a lie so he simply wouldn't about it.

Instead he looked at his father and said in a frankly disappointed voice. "What is wrong with you? Why the hell are you fighting with an Atlesian hunteress." Qrow didn't seem to answer so Shiro turned to Winter. He had never met her before but if Weiss was anything to go on then she was furious about something. "And you I understand that he can be an ass but I already know that he didn't start this fight. All you had to do was walk away what is your problem?"

Winter looked at him and then back to Qrow. "I think you've done enough damage to my family so stay away from Weiss. If you don't then I won't be so merciful" she spat before walking off with Weiss.

When Shiro turned back to Qrow something looked wrong. He looked like he normally did on Shiro's birthday. It was the happiest and saddest day of Qrow's life. The birth of his son and the death of the love of his life. Something that Winter had said brought up memories of Shiro's mother.

Without a word Qrow walked off probably looking for the nearest bar. Shiro thought about going after him, he hated seeing his father like this. Qrow was never a mean drunk. He was a sad drunk. Then he thought better of it. Shiro also learned that trying to help his father was a bad idea.

A hand landed on his shoulder and he instantly knew who it was reaching up and interlocking his finger's with Blake's

"Was that your father?" she asked.

"Yeah, or what's left of him." Shiro answered.

"What's his problem with Weiss' sister?" she continued.

"I don't know. He doesn't talk about his life before I was born. Everything I know I was told by my uncle." As he spoke Shiro turned to look Blake in the eye. He needed to set his personal problems aside. He had more important things to take care of. "Blake my father is an issue that I don't have time to explain so instead I am just going to move on with my day and hope for the best. So would you like to go to the dance with me?"

Blake had forgotten about the upcoming dance then again it seemed that everyone else had since in all honesty the answer was obvious and didn't take her very long to give. "Yes, I will." she said, trying not to blush too much.

Once he had his answer Shiro choose to leave as soon as possible to contain his excitement. It was odd since he was almost certain that she was going to say yes but he was still trying not to laugh and jump around after her answer.

He was walking back to his dorm when he noticed something on the floor. It was a scarf more to the point it was Yang's scarf and right next to it was one of Jaune's boots. Further inspection revealed a trail of clothing that led to a public restroom that was locked and had very distinct sounds coming out of it.

Opting not to press further and find out just what they were doing Shiro turned around and headed back in the direction of his room. The dance was a week away and he wanted to make sure that he had something to wear.


	12. Chapter 12

Shiro walked into his dorm and was suddenly met with the fact that he had never spoken to Willow who was now doing her best not to cry. Remembering the way she had looked when she ran off and the threat that Jaune had given him Shiro moved a little closer and sat down next to her on the bed she was laying on.

He couldn't look at her with what he was about to say and that was fine. Willow was face down in her pillow and had just now managed to stop shaking. "I'm sorry." Shiro said.

Her response was muffled but Shiro could understand her. "What for?"

It was clear that she was trying to find out if Shiro was sorry for not loving her. And he wasn't totally sure how to answer that question. His first instinct was to tell her that he was sorry for hurting her but that was too vague. He needed something more specific

"I'm sorry for not seeing sooner, my blindness put you in a very bad position. I'm not going to pretend to love you, you deserve better than that." he reached out and set his hand on her shoulder. When he felt her tense up before relaxing he cursed mentally.

He was telling her that he didn't love her but also going so far as to try and physically console her. That was counterproductive. Smoothly pulling his hand back he continued. " there is someone out there who will love you the way you deserve to be loved, but that isn't me." getting up he chose to give her the room for a little while but when he was at the door he finished their talk by saying.

"I know that this isn't fair, but I can't change that, but I can't lie to you, you're one of my best friends and dear partner but," he paused for a moment. He knew that his words were gonna sting but they still needed to be said. "But I am not in love with you."

Gently closing the door Shiro decided to take a walk. As he was doing so he saw Jaune and Yang emerging from their maintenance closet while putting some of their clothes back on. When they saw Shiro Yang started to turn red at the fact that her cousin was seeing her in her underwear but Jaune made a beeline for him.

Wrapping his hands around Shiro's collar he shoved the boy against the wall before asking him. "My sister is crying, why is she crying?"

Shiro wasn't sure how Jaune knew that he had spoken to Willow but somehow he did and Shiro wasn't going to argue with it.

"She knows where she stands, and I did it as gently as I could" Shiro said, hoping to placate the nearly raging beast in front of him. It seemed to work as he was set down and Jaune left without another word. Smoothly wrapping an arm around Yang and walking in the direction of the team JNPR dorm.

Shiro knew that he needed to get his outfit ready but first he had to make sure that the rest of his team was okay. Checking his scroll he saw that Naomi was back so he called her. There was a few rings before Sun answered. "Hello Naomi is a little busy, who is this?" Shiro wasn't known for his anger but he was getting tired of having his teammates either not answer their scrolls or answer them long enough to offer an excuse for why they weren't where they should be and then hang up.

"I'm her team leader and if she isn't the one holding this scroll in the next ten seconds I'm gonna kill you the first chance I get." he growled. The monkey faunus nodded his understanding and quickly handed the scroll to Naomi who had been working at her desk.

"Hey boss wadaya need?" she asked.

"Are you okay?" he knew that in hindsiught that would seem stupid but he needed to get a status report from her.

"yep I'm at team SSSN's dorm working on a project for Oobleck," she was going to say something when he looked at her scroll and said. "I have a second call coming in. I'm gonna talk to you later." the call ended and Shiro sighed in annoyance. He was about to call Olivia when she rounded the corner with her arm around one of the soldiers from the Atlas forces she had been staying with.

"Morning boss, this is Mitch, we met last night." She sounded like she was still drunk and from the smell of both of them he could tell that they were.

Nodding his head Shiro said. "Mitch is it?" when the boy nodded Shiro leaned in close and started to whisper into his ear. Olivia couldn't hear him but she could see Mitch's face. It quickly twisted in fear and disgust before he took his arm away from Olivia and ran back the way he came.

"Mitch, Mitch where are you going?" Olivia yelled after him. When he was around the corner she looked at Shiro with death in her eyes. "What did you tell him?" she growled.

"Nothing, " Shiro answered. " Just who your father was and what he was going to do to Mitch when I told him the two of you were stumbling drunk towards the team dorm."

Olivia yelled out in frustration wildly swinging a right hook at Shiro that was telegraphed and easily slipped. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to get a boy to even look at me?" she yelled trying again with her left hand this time.

Shiro ducked the shot and L stepped away to Olivia's left. He then hit her with a light teep kick that staggered her into the came back still swinging wildly which meant that Shiro kept slipping the hooks and when needed countering with body shots that were more akin to a shove than a strike. After several attempts Olivia yelled. " You bastard, I finally got a boy who was willing to spend time with me and you run him off."

Shiro was starting to think that he may have made a mistake but that wasn't true. If that boy ran off the first time he heard the name James Ironwood then he wasn't sticking around for long. But Olivia was still a little buzzed and angry so he needed to get out of this minefield.

He didn't want to hurt her so that ruled out using his kickboxing in any serious capacity. Instead he needed to wrestle or find a way to lead her into their dorm. Given that the last time he tried to wrestle he woke up several days later in a hospital bed he was going to go with the later option.

Shiro dropped his hands and leaned to his left. He was trying to draw out a right hook of straight both of which he could evade and then work to create a new angle that allowed him to back into their dorm. .

If he hadn't spent years training his reflexes then the right round kick that Olivia threw at him would have probably taken his head off. More frustrating was the way that she threw it. Unlike Shiro who threw round kicks like his leg was a club Olivia brought up her leg bent at the knee and snapped her lower leg out at his head.

It meant that letting her swing threw and give him a better angle wasn't going to happen. If he was willing to take out one of her legs then he very easily could. A heavy leg kick to someone on one leg would be very painful for her but she earned it when she tried to head kick him.

Stepping back into range, Shiro again lowered his hands and leaned to the right. Most folks had a hard time throwing a round kick with their lead leg and Oliva was standing with her left foot enough she swung a wide left hook.

Too wide it was a setup for that round kick, and he was waiting for it. Blitzing in, Shiro caught her kick at the thigh looping his left hand over and then feeding it out under her leg while his right grabbed a fist full of her jacket at the left shoulder.

Olivia was hoping to stay on her feet so when Shiro kicked her hard in the back of the left thigh she went up into the air and came down on her back. Shiro didn't need to see her to know that she was winded. Instead he kept his overhook on her leg and rolled her onto her belly pinning her right knee to the floor and threading his left leg into the back of her right knee. Leaning forward he grabbed and under hook on her left shoulder and an overhook across her face and down to his left hand. He locked his hands together in what his Uncle had called an "s" grip.

He had been taught this pin by his Uncle so that if he ever needed to do what he was doing now he could. Of course it was meant more for Yang than an angry teammate but that was irrelevant. Olivia wasn't going anywhere until Shiro allowed her to.

He could have made the pin hurt more but that wasn't the point he didn't want to hurt Olivia he wanted to remind her who was in charge and who wasn't.

He would prefer that she not need him to do that in such a violent way but if she was going to force his hand then so be it.

After a few seconds of struggling Olivia gave up and waited for Shiro to let her go. Which he promptly did. Releasing his grip and getting up. When she did likewise he opted no to speak and simply pointed at the door to their room. His face made his mood clear and after the way their last fight went she wasn't going to argue with him.

She shuffled off with her metaphorical tail between her legs. Once the door was closed he went back to planning what was next. He had been intending to get something to wear for the dance but then he saw Willow and then Jaune and then Olivia.

He used his scroll to find out where he could find a decent set of clothes. Reaching into his wallet he took out his spare key to Bumblebee. It wasn't a commonly known fact but Shiro was also licensed to ride a motorcycle. Although he would have to use Yang's he would have to bring it back before Yang noticed but something about the way her and Jaune were walking told him that she was going to be a little busy.

Heading down to the garage he got Bumblebee and loaded it onto a bullhead. He was in luck as a fourth year was running down to the surface to do the same thing as Shiro. The ride there was uneventful and when they landed the fourth year told him to be back in one hour.

Shiro was about to ride out of the port when he saw Odin walking up to him. He hadn't seen Odin in several years and the man looked like he had aged poorly. His one jet black hair was now mostly gray and his face showed many wrinkles and a few scars. When he reached Shiro he said. "Young man you seemed to be heading for the nearest Tailor and I know just the place in mind if I show you the way."

Before Shiro could respond the older man got on his own bike and headed off for Shiro to follow him. Shiro's instincts told him to go after him so he did. The next few hours seemed kinda blurry to Shiro but what he remembered was that he and Odin did some catching up and Shiro got fitted for a high quality suit.

When he told Odin that he wasn't able to afford such a good suit Odin told him. "Fret not I lead you here I will pay for the suit." Shiro was about to question this when Odin pulled out a large wad of lien and paid the tailor. They were about to head back when Shiro checked his watch and realized that the fourth year would have left without him. He was about to say as much when Odin motioned him to follow once again. This time back to the port and to Odin's personal airship.

On the ride back Shiro told Odin who he was going to the dance with. The old man seemed a little shocked. "Does this Blake person have a last name?" he asked.

"Belladonna," Shiro answered.

Odin let out a light laugh before saying. "You're going to the big dance with Ghira the Growler's daughter? I almost feel sorry for you,"

Naturally Shiro was confused and concerned by this. "Who's Ghira the Growler?"

"He's a man that I met in my youth. He was part of the original White Fang, and as for the growling well he's got a large chunk of panther in him. Back then whenever I would piss him off he would start growling at me." Odin said

Shiro was going to ask how he met Blake's father when they landed at the Beacon garage. "You should get going Ozpin isn't going to like me being here,"

Not questioning the matter Shiro grabbed his suit and rode Bumblebee out and into her parking spot. Odin departed and Shiro was setting the helmet back where he found it when he realised that he was being watched. Turning around he saw Yang and Jaune waiting for him.

Jaune looked down and rubbed the bridge of his nose between his thumb and forefinger. "You really need to stop finding ways to make us enemies." he said.

Shiro was about to answer when Yang interrupted "you stole my BIKE!"

Shiro looked at his cousin for the first time in the conversation. And she was angry, hair on fire angry.

"I didn't steal your... " once again Yang interrupted him again.

"I want one of his teeth," with that she walked away as Jaune started towards Shiro

"Don't run or fight you just make this worse." Jaune said.

Shiro was about to do one of those two things when Yang turned around and started laughing. Jaune did likewise and gently set one of his hands on Shiro's shoulder. Shiro wanted to say that the prank hadn't worked but if he was being honest then he was terrified.

Jaune and Yang left him there to go presumably harass some other person. Which left Shiro to make a call. His father answered quickly and seemed to be shockingly sober all things considered.

"Hey do you know a man named Odin?" his question seemed to sober his father up even more.

"What did you just say?" Qrow asked

"Do you know a man named Odin?" Shiro repeated

"Where did you meet him?" Qrow's response was making Shiro nervous.

"We played chess when I was younger and I just bumped into him in Vale. Who is he?"

Shiro was expecting to hear that Odin was an old enemy of his father's which made the last several hours rather weird.

The answer he got was as shocking for him as it seemed to be for his father. "He's your grandfather."


	13. Chapter 13

The day of the dance was finally here. Weiss had worked hard to plan it and she had to do most of it on her own since Yang was busy getting ready to go with Jaune and Pyrrha. Saying that still sounded a little weird in her head but she was certain that they would find a way to make it work.

Her dress was expensive but she met someone she hadn't seen before who took her to the store and helped her pick out a dress. Normally when an old man offered to help a young and beautiful woman do that it seemed creepy but something about him made it feel alright. He even paid for the dress.

When she was leaving she asked what his name was and he told her that his name was Odin. She made a mental note to ask her dad if he knew anyone named Odin later but for now she had to get back to Beacon.

That led her to today where she was fussing with her hair trying to get it just right. It sounded ridiculous but her and Pyrrha had met a few days before and talked about how they were going to match their dresses and hairstyles to best catch and share Jaune's attention.

In all honesty they had taken to their unique situation very well, for now at least. That may change in a few months but she wasn't going to rock the boat. Jaune had taken to sleeping in team SNOW's room in an effort to not play favorites.

Or at least he had planned to until he found out that all that would achieve is two very annoyed women who had both gotten very used to having a hot water bottle that would cuddle back. After that he started going back and forth. This only caused minor issues with team RWBY. or more to the point it caused issues with Weiss until Yang gave her a glare that was in Nora's own words. " fit to kill the living and wake the dead."

The heiress caved shortly. Yang took a step back from the mirror and looked herself over. She was wearing a full length red strapless dress that had a slit up the right leg for mobility. It was simple but beautiful. Her hair had been braided into a single braid that reached all the way to her butt. It had taken forever since Weiss had insisted on doing this right so she had taken the hair from the front of Yang's head and braided it into two separate braids that ran along the crown of her head. Once that was done Weiss separated the hair on the back of Yang's head and put it into three ponytails. She next used two hair ties to connect the smaller front braids together in the center of the three ponytails before she braided the ponytails around the front braids.

This resulted in a beautiful display that seemed to have the two front braids flow into the one larger braid. And Yang loved it. She went across the hall to check on Pyrrha. It had been decided that Jaune would get ready in team SNOW's dorm and Yang and Pyrrha would come to him together.

Just as Yang opened the door Pyrrha was doing likewise. They took a second to look at each other before they headed to get Jaune. Unlike Yang, Pyrrha went with a simple hair style opting for a slightly higher variation of her usual ponytail. She was wearing a knee length backless white dress that had several elaborate patterns on it. With a smile they locked arms and headed for team SNOW's dorm.

They were ready to see how Jaune was dressed but when they approached the door they heard the sounds of a fight. They threw open the door to see Jaune in the middle of a knife fight with a masked man. Jaune saw them but didn't seem to really notice them instead he was focused on the man with the knife.

said man attempted to stab at Jaune only to have his wrist caught and for Jaune to drag him forward into an elbow strike. The blow stunned the man long enough for Jaune to clamp down on the knife hand's thumb and with a quick shake he sent the knife flying across the room.

The man reached for his back pocket and presumably for a second weapon but Jaune was ahead of him. Stepping wide to the man's left Jaune slammed a liver hook that bent to man over which just so happened to set him up for Jaune to grab his right hand which was still behind his back and the inside of his right leg. In a swift twisting and lifting motion Jaune threw the man up and then head first back into the floor.

The man was barely conscious when Jaune grabbed him by the throat and dragged him to the nearest window. Dangling the man over a thirty foot drop he asked. "Why did he send you?"

The response was garbled but sounded like."wanted to make sure... you… ready."

Yang and Pyrrha could feel Jaune's anger wash over the room. "If I see you before christmas I'm beating you to within an inch of your life, understand."

Not waiting for an answer he let go and the girls rushed over to see the man land on his feet and run away into the night.

"Who was that?" Pyrrha asked.

"one of my cousins," Jaune muttered. "My father sent him here to make sure that I wasn't getting lazy."

Before the Pyrrha could ask if this was going to become a common thing Yang snapped out. "Where is Shiro!" She was both worried and angry. She was mad that her cousin was nowhere to be found when her husband was being attacked. She was also worried that her cousin may have been attacked himself.

"He was going to get the flowers for the corsages. It seems that my timing was fortuitous." Jaune answered, picking up the knife that had been dropped and folding it up before slipping it into his pocket.

As he was speaking Shiro walked in with an armload of corsages. When he saw Yang and Pyrrha in the room he shrugged and handed them their flowers. Seeing the ruining room he opted not to ask questions but instead just left to go find Blake.

Pyrrha and Yang pinned their corsages on Jaune and the three of them headed for the dance hall. When they arrived the dance was in full swing. Several people gave them odd looks since Jaune was the only guy with two dates and two corsages but nobody really wanted to kick the obvious hornets nest right now.

Shiro and Blake weren't there which seemed a little odd. Yang was wondering if they were in the middle of making her a niece but decided not to think too much about that. Instead she wanted to enjoy the moment.

Her, Jaune and Pyrrha were all sitting in a few of the chairs that had been placed near the corner of the room. Without a word Jaune stood up and walked off. They assumed that he had a plan so they waited for him to return.

Using this chance Pyrrha spoke. "So, Yang, about later tonight?"

The champion was clearly embarrassed but Yang could understand why. "What about tonight?" Yang responded.

Leaning in a little more over the chair that Jaune was sitting in Pyrrha elaborated. "We don't really remember what happened last time. It might be a good idea to try and agree to some ground rules beforehand."

Never one to let a chance to tease anyone go to waster Yang answered. "Pyrrha Nikos, are you planning on devising a way for us to sexualy share our husband!"

Yet it was Yang who started to turn colors when Pyrrha without missing a beat replied. "Well yes I am what little i remember of our mutual affair you have quite the fondness of his hands so I think that is a good place to start."

Yang was trying to think of a way to respond when Jaune came back. He handed them both a cup from the punch bowl and sat down between them where he had been before. They sat like that for a few minutes with Yang doing her best to deal with the fact that Jaune's right hand had made its way to her thigh.

When she looked she saw that he was mirroring the position with Pyrrha who seemed unfazed by it. The dance floor had started to clear up and as the first year students that had been dancing themselves into exhaustion started to slow move to the benches, chairs and in some cases the door. Jaune looked up drawing Pyrrha and Yang to do the same. When they did they saw that Blake and Shiro were dancing up in the rafters. The notion that Blake and balance allowed her to jump and spring between the beams was believable. But when Yang saw her cousin she almost jumped up from her seat to catch him.

That was until she noticed that Shiro wasn't just wearing his suit. When she looked closer she saw that he had a frame running under the clothing. "I let him borrow the backup exoskeleton for my armor," Jaune said.

"It's a little short but that didn't matter. With a little practice he learned how to operate it well enough, in that set up his balance is probably better than her's."

As he spoke Yang started to wonder. "Didn't he break Willow's Heart? Why are you helping him?"

Jaune chuckled slightly before elaborating. "I can't hate him for not loving someone. And he did his best to help her move on. I can forgive him for hurting her since he didn't mean or want to and since he has worked to heal what he hurt."

…

Shiro was doing his best to keep up with Blake but if he was honest it was all he could do to be a half step behind. That was fine by him though, he was willing to let Blake lead their dance up fifty feet from the main floor.

And if he was being honest he was having the time of his life. After leading him from end to end of the rafters Blake sped up to get a few moments ahead of Shiro before stopping on a heavily boarded area.

Taking his queue Shiro followed and stopped inches from her. When she wrapped her arms around the back of his neck he gently placed both his hands on her hips and as the slow music below them started they began to move. Looking down Shiro could see the whole floor below them. Including Naomi who was dancing with Sun.

Olivia was sitting with Willow. The two of them had come to the dance together since they had no dates. In Willow's case she was still hurting from Shiro and Olivia was unable to find Mitch.

He could also see Jaune and Yang, they were dancing much like Shiro and Blake. Nothing structured just the two of them moving with the music. There was a beauty in the simplicity. The music started to change so Shiro and Blake both separated and sat on one of the rafters looking down at the rest of the dance below.

As the new music started up they saw Yang shift out for Pyrrha and her and Jaune now began to dance. The new music was for a structured Mistrilian Waltz so it shocked neither of them to see that Jaune and Pyrrha knew the dance well. Somewhere during the song Blake and Shiro ended up holding hands.

They saw there for what felt like hours but was more like twenty minutes. Slowly Shiro dis-entangled his fingers from Blake's and wrapped his arm around her shoulders when she leaned her head against his shoulder. Shiro decided that he was happy to stay like this forever.

When he heard Blake start to purr quietly he chose not to make a fuss about it. After all, the last thing he wanted to do was start a fight with a ninja while they were sitting fifty feet in the air. He would lose that fight and then lose what little respect Jaune had given him. Not to mention Blake would be pissed.

It was only when some Jaune Yang and Pyrrha started to leave that Shiro realised something. Both Ren and Nora had been missing since the attack on the city. To be fair he hadn't seen them but that didn't mean that they weren't missing. He was thinking about texting Jaune to ask him but he saw that as Jaune was making his way to the door both of his hands which had been on the small of Yang Pyrrha's back were making a slow move down and the way that both women were putting a little sway into their step told Shiro that they wouldn't be able to answer any texts for a while.

…

Yang and Pyrrha were still trying to think of whose dorm they were going to when Jaune started leading both of them away from the dorms. "Just where are we going?" Pyrrha asked.

"I have something waiting for us at the docks." Jaune answered.

As they walked Yang could feel Jaune's right hand going further down her back. When he was about two seconds from having his hand on her ass she looked over and saw that he was doing likewise with Pyrrha.

Sure enough after a few steps this calloused hand found itself firmly gripping the right side of her rear end. "Getting a little frisky are we." Yang said with a smile.

"I'm leaving the Vytal festival dance with the two most beautiful women on the planet. I think I'm entitled to getting a little excited." Jaune replied. It was the right response since both women smiled and leaned a little further into him.

Soon they had reached the moonlight docks and it wasn't hard to find out why they were here. A large airship was seen parked at the docks. It had the Arc family crest on the side. And when Jaune approached the main door what looked to be a keyhole opened up. Jaune took out the folding knife he got from his cousin and after snapping it open he stuck the blade into the hole and twisted.

The sound of locks could be heard before the door opened. Taking both of them by the hand Jaune led them into the main room of the ship. In the middle of the room was a small table with three small boxes on it.

Taking the boxes in his hands Jaune turned to face Pyrrha and Yang. gently sinking to his knees he placed the boxes in front of him and grabbed the one that had a yellow Y on it. Opening the box he took out a ring of gold with a white band wrapped around it.

Taking Yang's left ring finger Jaune said. "With this ring you mark, symbolize and declare your love and loyalty to me from this day till death is this true.?"

It was a question but everyone in the room knew the answer with tears in her eyes Yang made a sound that was clearly a yes. When she did Jaune slipped the ring on to her finger and turned to Pyrrha.

Opening the box with a red P on it he took out a red ring with a white band wrapped around it. When he had Pyrrha's ring finger in his hand he said. "With this ring you mark, symbolize, and declare your love and loyalty to me from this day till death is this true?"

Pyrrha who also had tears in her eyes but additionally had a hand to mouth opted to just shake her head instead of answer.

With that settled. Jaune opened the box with a white J on it and drew out a ring of red and gold with a white twist around the outside. Putting the ring on his ring finger Jaune said. With this ring I show, symbolize and proclaim my love and loyalty to both of you, in equal measure from this moment until the end of time itself. That is a promise."

When he was done he twisted the ring on his finger in a counterclockwise direction. They didn't know it but Jaune's ring was different as he twisted the ring went to work. Shrinking down to the point that it could never be removed.

Taking both of them by the hand Jaune said. "Well Mrs' Arc's let's make this official. As he led them to the bedroom of the airship.

…

General Ironwood looked at the angel sleeping peacefully to his right. The way the moonlight was shining on Glynda's face was entrancing. He had to fight the urge to touch her but he didn't want to wake her. He was going to have to leave tomorrow morning just like he did every year. But for now he was just going to enjoy the moment. His love life had died many years ago when he and Glynda decided that they both had too many other obligations to bring a second person into their lives in any serious capacity.

The ringing of his scroll got his attention only because it was his brotherhood ringtone. When he checked the message it was from Adam and read. "This morning, 4 am by my guess,"

James sat up in bed and rubbed his eyes to get the sleep out of them. The ringtone had woken up Glynda who sat up in bed and wrapped her arms around James' torso. "You don't need to leave yet,"

Every fiber of his being told him to lay back down and go to sleep. But the Brotherhood needed him, Remnant needed him. "I do, I just got a message about something important that needs to be tended to by me personally." turning around and resting his forehead on Glynda's and said. "One day we won't be stuck like this one day we can just live."

He wanted to kiss her but if he did he wouldn't be able to leave so instead he stood up and got dressed for work. If Adam was right then he needed to get his plan in order. His army needed to be destroyed and yet still needed to save lives in the hell that was coming.


	14. Chapter 14

The first explosion rocked Jaune from his sleep. It was mildly difficult to untangle himself from both Yang and Pyrrha but he did so swiftly and set about putting on the armor set that he knew was waiting in the closet. It was the newest set and a wedding present from his father.

It was more powerful than anything he had ever worn before. That being said it still needed to be broken. He was securing the breastplate when he heard Pyrrha and Yang waking up. The second explosion roused them to their feet as Jaune started speaking.

"Yang, your team is going to need you, get going, Pyrrha how fast can you get to your armor?"

Yang began throwing on her clothes as she headed for the door and Pyrrha was about to answer when her scrolls rang. It was Ozpin and he said. "Mrs. Arc I need you to meet me at the main service elevator."

With a nod Pyrrha hung up and saw that Jaune had most of his armor on. "Did you hear that?" she asked.

"Yeap we need to get going," he answered. She was about to mention that Ozpin seemed like he wanted her to come alone. When Jaune kept speaking. " I don't trust Ozpin, and neither should you."

Not wanting to waste time he settled for having most of his armor and they left for where Ozpin was waiting. When he saw Jaune he was about to speak but Jaune cut him off. "I don't have time to banter with you old man. If it involves my wife it involves me, especially if it involves **her**" the way that he said that told Ozpin who he was talking about.

The headmaster had no idea how the Arc's had heard of the maiden but it wasn't too crazy to think that they would. Not wanting to waste too much time he lead them down to the vault and explained the plan to them. Jaune went to guard the door while Ozpin got to work on the transfer.

"What's happening?" Jaune asked the headmaster.

"Beacon is being attacked."

"Directly?" Jaune asked in a stunned tone.

"Yes, there are Nevermores ferrying smaller grimm to the school.

"what about Atlas?" a large army of Atlas security force that would make short work of any flying Grimm.

"something is wrong with their targeting systems so they aren't of much use."

"the ground units?" Jaune asked.

before Ozpin could answer the elevator door opened and Cinder Fall walked out. She wasted no time in drawing her bow and firing at both Pyrrha, and Amber. Jaune moved to deflect the arrows meant for Pyrrha and Ozpin did his best to block the arrows for Amber but he failed to stop the ones that were fired at the machines. With the machine destroyed the transfer stopped and Amber's life support shut down.

the poor girl's heart went still and her life passed on splitting the power between Pyrrha and Cinder.

"Get Pyrrha out of here!" Ozpin declared as he rushed forward and engaged Cinder. He pushed her around them and cleared the path to the door. Jaune made short work of the door holding Pyrrha in the pod.

As they made their way out of the basement they saw that the battle was getting bad. Most of Beacon was still in the dorms. They were about to head there in order to find professor Goodwitch when they heard something coming from the elevator.

They had just enough time to dash out from in front of it went the doors were blown across the room. Cinder Fall stepped out holding Ozpin's staff. Jaune and Pyrrha looked at each other and after gently squeezing each other's hands they took up fighting positions.

...

Shiro and Blake were asleep in their perch being supported by the armor frame when they heard the sounds of battle coming from the dorms. they both shook off their sleep and without a word took off for their rooms. Shiro needed to get out of his suit and he needed to get his sword. his locker was waiting for him at his room along with Willow and Olivia.

His scroll rang with orders from Professor Port. "Olivia, you and Willow are needed at room number 348 Port will be waiting for you, I'll get Noami and follow up." the two of them headed off and just as he was about to call Naomi Sun called him.

"Sun I don't have time for..."

Sun cut him off saying. "Shiro, It's Adam, he's here and he's going after Naomi please hurry."

The call dropped and Shiro took off after Naomi's scroll signal. He didn't know who Adam was but Sun sounded worried. The Signal led him to the cafeteria where he saw a man that he presumed to be Adam fighting with both Sun and Naomi.

Using the element of surprise Shiro fired off a volley at Adam that made him back up and allowed Shiro to run between them.

"step aside, my fight is not with you!" Adam growled.

"no chance in Hell," Sun spat back. reading his weapons he said. "as long as there is breath in my lungs and blood in my veins you will not touch her!"

At this Adam just laughed. "you really do know how to pick'em don't you?" Shiro was about to ask Adam what he was talking about when he heard Noami's crossbow fire. He heard the bolt sink into its target but Adam was fine.

It took Shiro an instant to realise what Adam meant. Adam knew Naomi and there was only one reason for that. Shiro turned in time to see Sun's body collapse to its knees before falling forward with a bolt sticking out of the back of his head.

Shiro was almost too slow to slip the thrust that Adam threw his way before his left leg screamed in pain. stepping back he saw a bolt sticking out of it and when Adam moved back in he did his best to parry it but he was too slow only succeeded in getting a sword run through him a few inches lower than Adam had intended.

Even though Shiro kept the sword from punching a hole in his lung the pain still brought him to his knees and while he was waiting for one of them to kill him heard Adam talking. "Well, now that we've dealt with those two how about we get back to the matter at hand."

Shiro reached for his sword only to have Adam's boot crush his hand making him yell in pain. "Just lay there and bleed quitely" he said. moving towards Naomi. He was in the middle of his set up for a slice when a woman that Shiro had never seen before came down and lashed out with a cavalry sabre.

The first strike caught Adam by Surprise and the second was partially blocked but still drew blood on his right shoulder. It was at this moment that Naomi opened fire shooting Adam in the back twice. He staggered forward and if it weren't for the armor he had lined into his coat he'd be dead. instead he stepped back and dropped to a knee. in one large swipe he threw all the energy he had at both women making them dive for cover.

When the wave was cleared Naomi and Adam were gone but the woman went to work pulling the bolt from Shiro's leg and wrapping a bandage around it. She stood up and looked like she was about to do something about the wound in his abdomen when Qrow attacked. "get away from him!" he yelled.

Shiro couldn't see what was happening. He was too busy trying to get a sterile bandage over the wound. He just needed to slow the bleeding enough for his aura to do the rest of this work.

When he was done his father appeared at his side looking over his work. He seemed satisfied but when he heard the sound of movement he raised his gun to fire on the woman. "dad wait," once he had his father's attention Shiro explained. "she saved me, if she hadn't fought them off I would be dead by now."

By the time they looked back the woman was gone so Qrow lowered his gun. fighting to his feet Shiro tore down one of the burned drapes and wrapped Sun's body in it. It was hard to carry the dead boy but Shiro needed to do that much for his fallen classmate.

...

Adam limped his way to the edge of Beacon where he had hidden his personal airspeeder. he could feel the blood running down his back. He didn't have long to get to a proper medic. otherwise he was as good as dead. He was less than ten yards from the lifeline back to his base when his legs gave way.

He fought to get up but he knew that it was pointless. He was dead, now his body just needed to figure it out. His head was lowering to the grass when he felt a set of long arms grabbed him by the armpits and lift him over their shoulders. He was about to fight back when he saw the brotherhood tat on the man's neck. knowing he was safe Adam stopped fighting and passed out.

...

Jaune knew that this fight wasn't going their way. It was all they could do to stay alive. He and Pyrrha had already taken more damage in the last five minutes than they had in the back year combined.

He was trying to fight through the wall of flames being sent his way when a heel was driven into his chest, sending him across the room. He had made it back to his knees when he saw it happen.

Pyrrha was in the middle of her own fight when she saw the dust blades that Cinder had thrown at Jaune. He wasn't going to be able to evade or block them, his armor being as damaged as it was so she threw her shield and guided it with her semblance.

It was a fatal decision since while she was doing that Cinder took the chance to run one of her twin swords through Pyrrha's chest. before using a front kick to send the champion flying across the room.

Jaune scrambled to his knees and ran across the room to Pyrrha's side. She was gone by the time he got there. holding her lifeless body Jaune began to shake not with pain but with rage. He was going to kill Cinder Fall grabbing Milo he lashed out with reckless abandon. his speed and strength making up what he lacked in form.

He wasn't going to win a sword fight but he wasn't trying to. Instead he was trying to push her and make her desperate for a counter. so he gave her one. As his left hand went behind his back he swung his right in a wide arc that drew out the instant response. a swipe of the blade and Jaune's right arm from the shoulder down fell to the floor.

At the same time his left caem around with the knife he took from his cousin and stabbed Cinder's neck just below the ear. The brachial plexus spasmed sending Cinder to her knees and breaking her aura. In response Jaune stabbed again this time putting the knife through her neck and leaving her to bleed out.

looking at his arm he saw that the suit was already at work closing the wound with a variety of chemicals. All of which would have hurt if he was able to feel them. All he was able to do was stagger over to Pyrrha and collapse.

…

Blake was fighting her way to her dorm when she saw it. Her old White Fang mask. It was hanging on the wall from a nail run through one of its eyes.

A wave of terror washed over her/ the only person who had that mask was Adam. And if he left it hanging on the wall outside her dorm then he knew she was here. Looking around and trying to find him she understood that he wasn't here for her, but why would he be here then? She wondered. Suddenly it made sense. She had broken his heart and his soul.

So he was going to do the same thing to her. Pulling out her scroll she was about to call Shiro when she stopped. She had used this tactic before. You scare the target and they call their security team for a check in. That was when you found the team and figured out how to get around them.

Adam was waiting for her to call Shiro so that Adam could figure out who Shiro was. She wasn't going to give him that satisfaction. It was a hard choice and one she knew would leave a bitter taste in her mouth for the rest of her life. But until Adam Taurus was dead. She needed to avoid Shiro at all cost.

Looking down at his contact info she chose to delete it and make her run. If Adam wanted to come after her and her family then he would need to do it on her terms.


	15. Chapter 15

Yang had made it to her team just fine but she was worried by the fact that Blake was nowhere to be found. Her sister was in the middle of killing a few beowolves in the main hallway so Yang fired three shots of her own. the first two killing one of the beast and the third catching a second's attention long enough for Ruby to decapitate it.

"Ruby, have you seen Blake?" Yang asked. Weiss was in the process of dispatching her own creature of Grimm but she still managed to answer for the pint sized reaper, who was still fighting a second wave of monsters.

"Blake is MIA. We have no clue where she is. Professor Goodwitch wants us to help the second years secure the dorm hallways while she and the other teachers try to thin the horde by taking out as many of the incoming grimm as possible." the Heiress having relayed her orders quickly went back to watching her partner's back.

Yang knew that she had a moment to catch her breath so she pulled out her scroll and tried to call Jaune. it went straight to voicemail but it still rang so he wasn't eaten by a grimm. letting her worry go for now Yang set about aiding her team or what was left of it defend the dorm.

...

James was working in overtime to get back to his main ship. Roman had managed to keep the fleet from firing on itself but he was stopping it from firing on the grimm and that wasn't okay. normally flying to his flagship would be not only possible, it would be easy.

but things had to be hard this time didn't they. He needed to look like he wasn't expecting his knights to turn on him. so he let them damage the shuttle a good but before he destroyed them. as such what he was doing would be less classified as flying and more as crashing inside of his own hanger.

thankfully Roman seemed incapable of locking the whole ship down. That meant that the hanger was open and the auto turrets were still powered off. making sure he was strapped in James made his final approach.

his bullhead lurched violently when it touched down and scraped to a stop. Thankfully they had been designed to have such lands not only be survivable but relatively easy to handle. unbuckling and getting out James saw that most of his men were either dead or gravely wounded.

The sight broke his heart. He could have stopped this but knew that if he did then there would be too many questions that needed answering. the brotherhood needed to remain a secret no matter the cost. The only thing that he could do is make sure that the lives that were spent meant something.

Drawing his pistol James made sure that it was loaded before replacing it in his holster and starting his search of the ship. The hacked KNIGHT security drones were patrolling the halls but avoiding them wasn't too challenging.

there were two that had been placed in front of the main doors into the bridge. there was no way to bypass them without starting a firefight so he drew his pistol and popped the corner putting a round in the main CPU of the first one before he grabbed another one and used his robotic hand to crush the weapon arm of the second before throwing it against the wall with such force that the drone for lack of a better word shattered.

the door was locked but it did little good when Ironwood used his override codes to unlock every door on the entire ship. the code also shut down the weapons systems until he gave the counter code.

then came his favorite part. it gave him complete control over the entire ship. He now ran the single strongest airship in the world from his cybernetic implants. He quickly relocked the bridge and made sure that nobody could get out.

Once that was done he went to the intrusion countermeasures page and scrolled through until he found the one he wanted. The cameras that watched the bridge were linked to a series of tranquilizer guns.

they were great non lethal options but they were a little finicky about the targeting systems. They were supposed to be guided by an infrared laser mounted to the cameras but James had his doubts.

then again the only person to ever use it was a former soldier who was now spending time in a military prison after he shot Winter in the ass with one of the guns. James wasn't present for that which was honestly good since he would have killed the son of a bitch if he was.

James had interrogated the man and found out that the system shot low so when he lined up his shot on the girl that matched the description of Neo Politan he aimed for the center of her left butt cheek in the hopes that it would land in her leg.

the soldier was wrong the aim was dead on and shot the small mass murder in the ass. she jumped a little and looked back to see the dart. the dose wouldn't put most folks to sleep but it wasn't meant to. it just made you more docile and easier to manage.

sure enough she was much slower and seemed like she didn't know where she was. that got her boss' attention but Roman wasn't a threat to him so he opened the door and leveled his pistol at the stumbling woman. "get on the ground and she won't die,"

doing as he was told James cuffed both of them and saw that thanks to her smaller than average size the dose had put her out. acting fast James set about reactivating all the weapons and targeting them on the grimm.

with the flagship up and running the rest of the fleet was also reactivated and did likewise. The battle was functionally over but that left Roman and Neo. he was still trying to figure out what to do with them. his first thought was to kill them but that seemed like a waste.

"You two are going to tell me everything you know about the people you are working with," He said. he could tell that Roman was about to try and say something so he cut him off saying "because if you don't then I'll let you go and they will hunt you to the ends of existence. until they go down I'm the best protection you have."

Roman sneered at that. "you have no idea what you're dealing with"

a knowing smirk spread over James' face. "Try Me."

...

Ruby and Weiss were helping to secure the bullhead docks for the ability to get any injured students and staff out of the school while Yang was searching the rest of the school with Professor Port. Atlas had finally gotten its head out of its ass and took out the flying grimm.

Weiss heard that the knight drones had been hacked but the specialist core got the situation under control very quickly. with all of that handled the battle was over in minutes. while she was there she saw Willow and Olivia regroup from their room. When the attack came they were separated from their team then they got orders from a professor but after that they had more or less just run wild on any grimm they found.

now they were moving to Ruby in the hopes that she could point them in the direction of her team. "where are Shiro and Noami?" Olivia asked.

"I don't know Shiro won't answer his scroll and Naomi is missing." Ruby said.

"Naomi betrayed us," Shiro said, surprising everyone with the fact that he had somehow made it into the landing area without anyone noticing. He had a body wrapped in a blood soaked curtain in his arms. hr carried the body to the place that they were using as a makeshift field hospital and set the body down.

in doing so the curtain partially fell away and Sun's face could be seen. the sight drew a gasp from Ruby and Willow. they were about to ask what happened when Shiro growled. "Noami Fucking killed him." he crashed his hand into one of the nearby stone pillar cracking it. "shot him the back of the fucking head." again he lashed out at the stone damaging it further.

His face went from rage to horror as he turned to Ruby. "Where's Blake!"

Ruby wanted to give him a better answer but all she could offer was "We don't know she won't answer her scroll." she could tell that Shiro was getting more scared so she kept going. "her aura meter shows that she is alive but we can't find her."

Shiro visibly relaxed, at least she was safe. She was probably with some other team trying to clear out a part of the remaining grimm. Suddenly everyone was distracted by the sound of Willow screaming. turning revealed Jaune, practically on his knees and missing his right arm dragging Pyrrha's dead body towards the staging area.

they all ran over to help. Willow and Ruby tried to help Jaune to his feet but he refused to let go of Pyrrha. instead Shiro and Olivia had to pick them both up as best they could. they shuffled near to where Sun was laid and set the two of them down.

look at Jaune would haunt Shiro for the rest of his life. less than a day ago Jaune was the pinnacle of what Shiro wanted to be. He was strong and confident and led his team well. He seemed fearless. That was less than a day ago. Now Jaune looked like a different person. He just sat there staring at Pyrrha with a face of pure defeat.

Shiro heard an airship and when he looked he saw a luxury craft land nearby. The guards that poured out looked like they were from Atlas and the man who followed was instantly recognized by everyone there.

Jaques Schnee followed by his son Whitley Schnee. Weiss looked nervous just being in his presence but nobody noticed. something about her father drew the attention of everyone in the area. walking over to Weiss he said. "Weiss, we are leaving, come with me,"

"Father, my team needs me here." Weiss protested.

her father's response was swift and left no room for argument. "young lady you are still my daughter and you will do as you are told. Do not make me think that giving you the freedom of Beacon over the structure of Atlas was a mistake and get on the airship."

Whitley looked like he was about to make a smart remark but the look his father fixed him with shut that down before it even started. Weiss seemed like she wanted to fight the matter but gave in and followed her father and brother on the ship.

when she was onboard the guards went to the bay of the ship that they stayed in and she and her brother went to the main cabin. Weiss was going to use the main restroom in order to get some medical supplies. She wasn't badly hurt but she had a few scratches and bruises that needed attention.

"father wants nobody going in there," Whitley said. from the chair he had sat down in the leather was the best that could be bought and matched his suit well. his posture relaxed a little more now that they were in private but he still seemed to be doing his best to act like his father.

Weiss thought about it and decided that she didn't care what her father wanted. she was going to tend to her wounds. when she reached for the handle and vice like grip clamped down on her hand and with a strength she didn't know he had her father pulled her away from the door.

at first she felt fear flood her when she saw how mad he was but unlike all the other times his anger seemed to melt as he looked at her and he sat her down in a chair next to her brother. walking over to the table he said. "I suspected that you would need to care for a few new scratches that was why I had the aid kit taken out and left on the table. If you had looked or waited you would have seen it."

making his way over to her he kneeled in front of her and set the kit on the floor first fishing out the antiseptic wipes and then a package of bandages. Weiss wasn't completely certain what to say, her father had never paid this much attention to her before. He always delegated such tasks to Klien.

her words still failed her as he started to search her for injuries. staring with her neck then moving to her hands and arms before finishing with her legs. Once he had identified all open wounds he went to work cleaning and bandaging all of them.

when he was almost done he began to speak. "Weiss I know that this has been a very stressful day for you but there is a lot that I need you to understand, things are going to change in a large way and I'm going to need you to be patient and try and keep a clear head about this."

Weiss felt dread growing in her stomach if her father had news so bad that it warranted him paying this much attention to her then it must have been awful news.

"I have something to tell you but your sister needs to be here for it as well. it pertains to all three of you."

As he spoke he looked at Whitley, that was what tipped Weiss off. He was dying and he had written her and Winter out of the will. it made her sick, all he was doing was trying to soften the blow for when he told her that her name now meant nothing.

she refused to let this go unchallenged. she had no way to fight it but that didn't mean that she had to cooperate. She quickly stood up and started for the bay where the soldiers were staying. they were a bunch of hired mercenaries but she would rather be in a den of jackals than a pit of vipers.

"Weiss please," her father started.

"NO!," she shouted. "I've had it with you lies and vileness," she started for the door but stopped halfway there and she turned back and added. "I wish it wasn't so easy to read what you want out of this. and I never thought i would say this but you know what since it clearly doesn't matter to you then it doesn't to me. I HATE YOU!" she screamed before storming off.

"That arrogant bitch" Whitley mumbled. He was rewarded with a firm but not harsh hand to the back of his head.

"I've told you about talking about your sisters like that, why don't you go wait in your room for the rest of the fight." Dropping his head in shame and confusion Whitley slowly made his way out of the room as Jaques opened the door to the restroom. Adam Tuarus was passed out in the tub with several IVs in him and multiple bandages wrapped around his chest.

The boy was still asleep and that was fine with Jaques. he came here for a little bit of Privacy. sitting down in the chair he brought into the room for when Adam woke up Jaques lifted his hand to his mouth and did his best to wipe the tears from his face.

his shoulders heaved as he cried. He sat like that for several minutes with his head in his hands. "what happened?" The question got Jaques focus, looking he saw that Adam was awake. He almost looked like he was worried for Jaques.

"My own daughter just told me she hates me, I know the other one feels the same, and my son who loves me loves all the wrong things about me." Jaques said. He was speaking more to himself than to Adam but that didn't matter. now having a question of his own Jaques asked. "why do you care?"

Adam seemed to think about moving before he thought better of it and answered. "you could have left me for dead or even killed me yourself with a clean conscience. but you didn't, and I'm not restrained so I'm not going to a secret prison. so I suppose that I'm not too sure what to do right now and it never hurts to know more than you need to."

"I know about the poison Adam," Jaques said.

Adam was nervous, "So I am going to some secret prison then?"

"No, my doctor found it in my most recent blood screening. I have a little over three months to live at the best." Jaques said the words that he had rehearsed but saying them still felt odd. Adam had managed to poison Jaques favorite brand of whiskey. Small enough amounts that it wasn't able to be picked but by the time Jaques had finished the bottle he was a dead man. "My Wife too but she already knows." the dying man said

Adam felt a pit in his stomach. He never thought he would feel bad about killing Jques Schnee but he never met or had even heard of the man's wife. He didn't even know her name but he had killed her. "this needs to end Adam. all the fighting and killing. you and I have turned each other into monsters." He handed the young man a stack of papers the language was one that Adam didn't know and when he turned to Jaques the older man explained.

"That's the old tongue of Mantle, all pieces of law must be written in it, here's the important parts in English." He handed Adam a second sheet. The laws that would be passed by this bill would be ground breaking. Massive jail sentences for negligible endangerment of workers, both human and faunus. Mandated fair pay, a new court system that recognized all rights as universal. It was everything that Adam had been fighting for.

"There's a price to this," Jaques said. Drawing Adam's attention.

"You want my death.' Adam guessed. If that was the price then he would pay it gladly. Jaques had never lied to him before. If his death would make all of this happen then he would pull the trigger himself.

"No," Jaques responded, confusing the young man. "You leave the fang and never go back, don't start a new one, and never hurt my family. give me your word on those things and I will have this voted on tomorrow. Me and everyone that owes me favors will vote for it. That alone makes the passing certain when you factor in all the ones who would vote for it any way and it will landslide."

Smoothly reaching for the white fang patch on his pants Adam ripped it off and tossed it at Jaques feet. "You have my word," he paused for a moment like he was thinking about whether or not he wanted to say what he was about to say and seemed to think that he should so he finished. "you have my word, brother."

There were tears in his eyes to match Jaques. A decade and a half of fighting had led them both to this moment. and now it was over. Less than a year ago they were enemies but now they were simply brothers. Watching out for and caring for each other. In truth they had both always had a lot of respect for each other but they never let it impede their work.

"My war with you is over. Soon James will have all my intel on the fang, they won't be a threat, and anyone who would threaten my brother's family." As he spoke he disconnected all of his IVs and climbed out of the tub to stand in front of Jaques. "Will have to step over my dead body to do it."

Jaques fought to his feet before wrapping his arms around the young man. Even without their brotherhood connection they would still have been close. Just the amount of time they had spent studying each other made that inevitable.

...

it was funny how blurred the line between enemy and friend had become over the years.

Minutes after Weiss and her family left a new airship arrived. Willow saw it and now it was her turn to look scared. When the bay door opened a single man walked down the ramp. He was tall and blonde with broad shoulders covered in heavy armor. He had a sheathed sword at his hip and he seemed to ignore everyone on his way to Jaune.

It wasn't hard to guess that this was Jaune's father. "Report," the man said standing over the broken boy. When he got no answer he lightly stamped his foot on the ground and this time she spoke a harsher tone. "Report!"

Years of training overcame grief and Jaune rose to his feet. looking up at his father he stated. "Final assessment, complete tactical failure. Ozpin is dead, the status of the maiden is unknown and the school is actively burning. One of my teammates is deceased and the other two had been AWOL for some time."

Jaune's father looked displeased and so it was no shock when he said . "You know what this means."

Nodding Jaune answered "Yes sir," holding out his left arm he continued. "Sir, I cannot reach the controls." with a nod the old man pressed a series of buttons and the armor fell to the floor,

"I need the ring," he said only to be cut off when Jaune immediately countered. "Only from my lifeless hand."

Nodding once more he offered. "Then give me the body glove." Jaune swiftly stripped out of the glove leaving him in only his underwear.

With one final look Jaune's father said. " Now begone from my sight from now until the end of time,"

Without a moment of hesitation Jaune turned and limped away, Willow for her part was in complete shock. "How can you do this, he's your own son." She begged

"It's not about what I want Willow." He said in a tried and practiced tone. "If you want to stay here you can if you want to come home I'm leaving soon." Having said his piece the old man returned to his ship and waited.

Willow, looking more confused, walked over to Shiro. she was acting on instinct but her leader was as good a place as any to start. she was about to speak when Ruby blurted out. "Shiro, Blake's scroll just pinged at the harbor, I don't know where she's going but that was where she was. "i'm sending you the location."

before Willow could respond Shiro took off towards one of the transports. The ride down was long and nerve wracking. Once the craft landed he was the first one off and began sprinting for the docks.

When he was close he used the tracking ping that Ruby sent him to find Blake but only saw her scroll he picked it up and saw that there was a message on it. He pressed play and a video of Blake's face filled the screen.

"Shiro," she started, "I'm sorry. I can't tell you why but I need to go, my past is coming back to haunt me and I can't let that hurt you." In the video she was starting to cry and so was Shiro he knew what she was about to say. "I love you, Goodbye."

The video ended and Shiro was prompted to replay it. Rage was building him now. his hand crushed inward crumpling the scroll and grinding the screen into dust. "AAAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGHHHHHH" he roared as he hurled the scroll into the ocean.

"I wasn't strong enough," he growled walking over to a shipping container. " WASN'T STRONG ENOUGH!" he yelled, lashing out and putting his closed fist through the metal wall of the container.

"You gonna keep attacking metal boxes or do you want to get stronger.?" a voice from behind him asked. when he turned Shiro was Odin looking at him. "I can take you to your Aunt, she won't be nice but she will make you stronger."

Glancing down at the bruise forming on his hand Shiro looked up through crimson eyes and growled. "where is she?"


	16. Chapter 16

"We can't keep waiting for him." Olivia said. They were sitting at a table in what was left of the cafeteria. The school had been undergoing massive reconstruction and repair. It just so happened that Olivia"s Father was more or less running the school with Professor Goodwitch.

As such she was allowed to stay on campus and she had asked nicely so the rest of her team and team RWBY was allowed to as well. It had been several days since all Hell had broken loose. Now they were trying to get their teams together to form their next move.

"Agreed," Willow said. The sight of her teammate lowered Olivia's mood. Willow hadn't been the same since Jaune left. Apparently Jaune's father sent him to Beacon in order to prevent an attack that the Arcs had caught wind of. When he failed the only possible punishment was banishment.

Glancing around the table didn't turn up any better results. Yang was worse off then Willow, she was mostly unharmed minus a few new scars but her soul looked broken. In less than a day she went from happily married and thinning about the moment. To being alone and terrified.

Ruby hadn't told anyone but Yang had been sneaking into her little sister's bed at night and holding her close. Whether it was because she needed someone to comfort her or if she was scared of waking up and Ruby not being there was unknown but it still wasn't good.

Ruby looked downtrodden and with the loss of Shiro, Sun, Pyrrha, Blake, Jaune, and Weiss she was. That left Ren, Nora, and Naomi. Just thinking about the last one;s name made Olivia growl lightly. They had been betrayed, stabbed in the back.

"Without Shiro we are gonna need a better plan." Willow said. "There is no way that we are gonna be able to track any of them down with just the four of us."

"Six," a voice corrected, the source was Ren. He and Nora had been missing since the night that everyone went drinking. They had actually been dropped from their classes.

"Where have you two been?" Willow snapped getting to her feet and walking over to them. "Do you have any idea how worried we were about you, you just disappeared!" by the time she had reached them she was almost in tears. Stopping for a moment she threw her arms around both of them and cried. "I'm just so glad you're safe."

This caught both teens off guard. They had never considered that Willow would care about them but it made sense the more they thought about it. She was their team leader's sister. Kinda like a semi-aunt.

Pulling back she tried to talk but her tears silenced her. "We know about Pyrrha," Ren said, slightly tightening his arms around her and Nora. It was an odd feeling, the one he was getting from this strange group hug but he liked it and it helped to lessen the sting he felt having to say that Pyrrha was dead. Together they returned to their seats.

"We plan to go after the ones who did this." Olivia interjected. "Are you in?"

Ren looked to Nora and when he got a nod he looked back. "Yes, who are we hunting?"

Tossing a series of photos she got from her father he pointed to the circled faces. One was of a large man with large sideburns. And the other was a woman, she had long dark hair and a smooth face.

Pointing to the man Olivia explained. "According to Atlas intelligence that I am not about to share with you this man is named Hazel Reinhart. He has no major record in fact he has nothing more than a name and a dead sister. He was at the breach we sealed last month and he was seen less than a mile from the field where the Grimm were massing for their attack on Beacon."

Next she tapped her finger on the woman. "This is Cinder Fall, she's here from Haven and she was also seen near the Breach."

before she could continue Willow interrupted. "But the exchange students hadn't arrived yet?"

Nodding at her teammate Olivia continued. "That's right and that is our heading. Haven academy."

"Any sightings of either of these people since the attack?" Ren asked.

Olivia shook her head to say no before Ruby took over. "We are gonna need to split up." Motioning to her sister she said. "Our home is between here and Haven. We can set out from there but we are gonna need Weiss. I still don't like the odds of just the six of us doing all of this."

"You guys get to Ruby's house," Olivia said. "I'll get Weiss." standing up and heading for the door Olivia glanced back and said. "If I'm not back with Weiss inside of two weeks go without me,"

…

Junior was waiting for Mercury and Emerald to return from the gas station they had stopped at. He had taken them out of play the night that Beacon was attacked. They were coordinating the lesser white fang assault on the city of Vale.

Once he had them he went to check on his daughters. What he saw shocked him and told him that he had finally succeeded. A large man with a sling and a crutch was wearing one of his suits and giving his men orders.

He clearly had at least a little hunter training and under his orders the six block radius of the club was protected until Vale SWAT was able to contain the attacks. It was a surprise to see but also told him that his biggest job yet was complete.

The moment he found out that his wife was expecting twins he knew that his reason for being had changed. That was when he started to get out of the brotherhood. His new purpose was to make sure that they never needed him again. And now after almost two decades he had done it. They didn't need him anymore. It was bittersweet, and he revealed in it. He almost didn't notice when Mercury and Emerald returned.

"Where are we going!" Emerald snapped. It was no secret between the three of them that the only reason she was coming quietly was because Mercury practically begged her. She wanted to stand by Cinder till the bitter end.

"Ever heard of Manotach?" Junior asked.

When he got no response he explained. "Not many have. It will be a great place for us to lay low until this all blows over."

"What do you want?" Emerald asked.

The question caught him off guard since he figured that they would be a couple of good soldiers and do whatever the person in charge told them.

"What do you mean?" she looked like she was about to answer but he already knew that he wasn't going to be satisfied with the answer so he added. "What are you afraid of?"

She was clearly uncomfortable but he had attributed that to the fact that her entire unit had been crushed by one man who had told her and Mercury to follow him.

"I understand why you want Merc. he's a killer with potential but me I'm just a thief. The only reason someone like you would need me is if you get, um." she wanted to ask her question but she also didn't want to insult the man who had killed twelve white fang elites in less than five seconds. "Lonely,"

It took him a moment to figure out what she meant, a sign that he was getting old. " No," he quickly stated. "I'm not helping you two so that I can help myself. I used to be a cop and I saw a lot of kids like you two. I couldn't help them but I can help you."

It was clear from his tone that he didn't want to talk about the matter further but they stik believed him so they kept quiet for the rest of the ride.

…

James Ironwood sat at his new desk in Beacon's main office. The room was relatively untouched after the attack but that didn't mean that nothing had been changed. Until a suitable replacement could be found James was stuck running both of his schools and the entire army of Atlas. He was a lucky man to count the staff of all three organizations as skilled and in many cases capable of handling themselves. So for now he would focus on Beacon. Dr. Polendina had the academy under control and while Winter wasn't running the army she was handling much of the administrative work.

That left him time to work on how to repair the school. Starting with the main structures that were damaged such as the cafeteria and the main dorms. Then there was the matter of the injured students.

Thankfully there were only two fatalities. Pyrrha Nikos and Sun Wukong. James was writing a note to Leonardo to explain the death of his student as well as to the family of Ms. Nikos. He was electing to leave out the part about her getting married since it wouldn't help with their grief.

James knew little of the NIkos family but if what he had heard was true then their first move upon learning that Pyrrha had been married would be to find the husband and try to bring him into their family.

That was something that Jaune Arc would not want. If James was right and when it came to the Arcs he normally was, then the boy was doing his best to drink himself into an early grave as a way to dull the pain and shame.

He had not only failed as a son, but as a husband as well. Two of the three most important things that he could have become he was now a failed example of.

The bodies were being cared for by the Beacon Medical Examiner. They would be sent to their respective final resting places when the arrangements were done.

His scroll buzzed and when he looked he saw that it was a message from Junior to him and all other brotherhood members. "Sustari and Black are out of play, we are dropping off the grid until this is over. Lose my number.!"

There was no need to respond if what James knew of Junior was right then he had already thrown the scroll out of the window while speeding down some dirt road in the ass end of nowhere.

Before he could put down the scroll it buzzed again. This time it was Glynda, one upside to being in Beacon was that he got to spend more time with her.

She wanted to tell him that breakfast was almost ready. He knew better than to ask what she had made since the answer would be in a different language so he simply responded with "On my way,"

When he arrived at Glynda quarters he saw that she had set out the table for both of them. Sure enough the food on the plates was something he had never seen before but it smelled good. Taking his seat he noticed that he was eager to eat something that wasn't from a MRE ot ration can.

Soon the soon to be headmaster of Beacon Academy came from the small kitchen in her room with a pitcher of what seemed to be coffee but again James knew better than to assume. "I have some news," Glynda said, setting the pitcher down and sitting down in the other seat.

Before James could reach for the coffee she explained. "Olivia left for Atlas this last night,"

Ironwood froze in the middle of his reach. A deathly serious tone came over his voice as he asked. "Where is she going?"

Realizing that she had delivered some troubling news Glynda answered. "I don't know, is there a problem?"

James was already out the door before he responded "Damn it she's going after Weiss,"

…

Olivia did a final check to make sure that her face paint properly broke up her out line before turning back to Mitch. "You know the plan. Let's go,"

Finding Mitch was an easy task; his unit was a ghost unit, she recognized that his unit patch wasn't on the books so it wasn't too hard to figure out. From there she just had to follow the ghost money. Luckily a quartermaster owed her a favor.

He was against the idea of breaking into Weiss Schnee's mansion but when Olivia threatened to call "Daddy" in tears and say something about him saying or doing something wrong he changed his tune real fast.

She did feel bad about it but she needed to get Weiss away from her bastard of a dad. Mitch refused to get his team involved in what was about to be at least six different felonies but he came and that was all she needed.

Getting past the drones that patrolled the grounds was beyond easy. But those were meant more to keep people from getting back out than anything else. The Schnee mansion had been set up in a double direction of defense. Getting in required bypassing several lines of security but getting out was even harder.

The human guards were more trouble Mitch stopped her from just beating a few of them unconscious so that they could still try and never be seen. They made their way to what seemed to be the security house making sure to keep low and slow.

Mitch used a few toys that didn't officially exist yet to tap into the cameras. The device also made a map of the entire mansion and surrounding grounds. Both of which helped. While Olivia kept her eyes open for an attack Mitch used the map and cameras to figure out where Weiss was and what the fastest way to her was.

With all of their routes planned they disconnected and headed into the house. It could have been a maze of hallways if they didn't have their map. With the map finding Weiss was shockingly easy.

The lock on her door wasn't even engaged, that was odd but not unheard of. Slowing opening the door Weiss could be seen on her bed. "Weiss, grab your things," Olivia said looking around to make sure that they were still clear.

Weiss, not one to look a gift horse in the mouth, quickly grabbed a few changes of clothing and her rapier before following the two of them out of the house. Or at least that was the plan. They were a few turns from their exfil route when they rounded the corner and saw a tall thin man instantly recognized as Jacques Schnee.

Not slowing down and acting fast Olivia drove her shoulder into him while Mitch grabbed Weiss by the hand and half lead half dragged her away.

Jacques for his part just saw someone drag his daughter away and another person was doing their best to take him to the ground. Not liking either of these things Jacques dug his hands under his attacker's arms and forced her up and away from him. With his right hand posted on her left shoulder Jacques stepped so far to his right that his originally left foot forward orthodox stance was now a right foot forward southpaw stance.

Before Olivia could adjust to the surprisingly fast man he launched a left roundhouse that hit with the force of a medium sized car directly on her solar plexus.

The blow sent her back several feet and without the ability to breath properly she slumped to the ground clutching her chest where she had been kicked. The pain was debilitating but when she looked up she saw that Jacques slumped against the wall himself. His left leg was clearly broken and he looked exhausted.

Drawing her sword Olivia managed to fight to her feet. Only able to take small steps she made it to Jacques and was about to run him through when he noticed that his neck was glowing. It was a tattoo that seemed to be doing the glowing.

Ignoring the odd fact Olivia drew back her hand for the kill when a scary strong left hand grabbed her forearm the same grip was applied to her throat by the new persons right hand. The attacker who had come from behind and slightly to the right stepped around and swung Olivia into the nearest wall making her drop her sword.

The last thing she felt was the hand around her throat grab the back of her head. And the last thing she saw was Adam Tauras' forehead coming straight at her before everything went white.

…

Letting the now unconscious attacker drop the floor Adam ran over to Jacques who pointed in the direction that Mitch and Weiss ran saying. "They have Weiss!"

Nodding Adam took off after them he had no way of tracking them inside the house but Jacques had given him a map of the house when they arrived so he used that to guess their route. Once he was outside it was his domain. Here they left actual tracks. Following them Adam used one of his lesser known skills, his speed. He was one of the fastest runners on Remnant; his top speed was around thirty five miles an hour but that was only for about a minute.

He saw them boarding a bullhead and put everything he had into getting there. Instead of making it in time he reached into his pocket and as the bullhead was lifting off he jumped, throwing what to most would seem like putty at the rear door.

That putty was actually very adhesive when it was impacted with enough force. Like being thrown at the wall or the back door of a bullhead. It contained a tracker that went live the moment the motion sensor.

Heading back to Jacques he found that Klein had already splinted the leg and was helping Jacques back to his feet. Olivia was still laying on the floor so Adam grabbed one of her legs and dragged her after Jacques and Klein. This led them to the area of the mansion that contained the interrogation room that nobody knew Jacques had.

Soon Olivia was strapped to the table and had a water hose flushed over her face. Her gag reflex woke her up just in time for Jacques to limp his way over to her side. "Where is my daughter?" He knew about Adam's tracker but one of the most important things they could do is convince whoever this was to give them what they wanted. Once she was broken the rest would be much easier.

She opted to stay silent causing Jacques to turn to Adam. "you have their location. Go get her and kill anyone who gets in your way, you have the best legal team in the world behind you."

'"I'm gonna need a weapon," Adam answered. "I can't use my sword it just feel wrong,"

Nodding Jacques turned to Klein who had taken to the surprise of Adam and Olivia as well as the torture room rather well. "Take him to the guard shake, let him have his pick of weapons. If any guards don't want to give him the weapon, buy him one to match."

As he spoke he reached for the scalpel and limped over to Olivia's feet. You think you're tough, but I promise you the faster that you talk the fast the pain will end, and until you do I am going to take you apart inch by inch, nerve by nerve, tendon by tendon."

As Klein and Adam were about to leave and Jacques was getting ready to go to work starting with Olivia"s feet they all had to ignore the fear in her eyes. They hated this, but she knew where Weiss was, and she was one of the ones who kidnapped her so they were somewhat lacking in mercy.

Adam was a few feet from the door and Jacques a few inches from Olivia's big toe when the door to the room was thrown open and James Ironwood barged in shoving Adam out of his way before using his right hand to rip the restraints off of Olivia who threw herself into his arms the moment she was free and cried into his shoulder. She tried not to show it but she was terrified beyond the capacity of rational thought and right now her father was the only safe thought she had.

Feeling his daughter pressed against him James also felt his heart rate slow back to normal. Once she stopped crying he led her to a chair in the corner of the room and sat her down.

Walking over to Jacques and Adam he quietly growled. "Which one of you hit her!"

Adam was about to step forward and take the beating that was coming his way when Jacques cut in. "we both did, after she kidnapped Weiss, now who is she!"

James wasn't going to beat the dying man so instead he snarled and answered. "She's MY daughter, which one of you hit her?"

Now that he was more level headed so Adam stepped forward and explained "I'm the one that gave her the welt on her head." he left out Jacques round kick since he didn't see it happen and honestly had no idea it happened.

"I didn't kidnap Weiss," Olivia managed to whisper from the corner. It was just loud enough to be heard by the rest of them. It was clear there was confusion of Jacques and Adam's part so she kept going. "We came to rescue her, get her away from you," she said snarling lightly at Jacques.

Her words made Jacques take a step back. They thought his own daughter needed to be rescued from him. Putting his pain aside Jacques turned to James. "She knows too much, she's one of us now. You get to explain." he turned for the door but turned back for a moment to say. "Her first mission a get-a-long with Adam," leaving the room

James went over and after nodding for Adam to leave he started talking to Olivia. "So you've met Jacques and Adam,"

"What the fuck dad!" Olivia exploded.

James chuckled lightly at that, she had been holding a lot in for the past few minutes. Now she wanted answers. "The brothers are real," he said, telling her that fairy tales were true was simply enough. "But they aren't gods, they are little more than monsters that played with mankind and when they gew board wiped it out. Now they are waiting for a signal to return. Adam, Jacques, and myself among others are in a group that has dedicated itself to make sure that never happens. We also have a long standing commitment to protect the people of Remnant from the Grimm."

Wrapping his arm around the now standing girl he said. "You now know more about me than Glynda, you're one of us now. Welcome to the Grimmbane brotherhood sorry about the name it was founded by a group of brothers and the name stuck."

"What are my orders?" she asked. This was all still new to her and she was falling back on instinct.

"You are going to go with Adam for a Get-a-long mission afterwards the two of you will hunt down the White Fang." he answered waiting for her shock to pass before explaining. "According to himself and Jacques Adam has had a change of heart and is planning on destroying the whtie fang. You will help him."

Olivia nodded. She knew that there were a lot of questions but right now wasn't the time. She had her orders. If she needed to spend a mission co-existing with the most wanted man on Remant in order to destroy the white fang then so be it. Team RWBY would be fine without her.


	17. Chapter 17

Odin and Shiro rode for several days until they made it to the Branwen camp. "I can't go with you from here. Now you are on your own."

As Shiro approached the doors opened and several men "you had better have a damn good reason for being here"

Grabbing the first man by the collar he growled. "Tell Raven Branwen that Shiro has arrived." quickly spinning his sword to res the edge on the throat of the man he was holding he continued. "And if she takes more that five minutes I will kill this man."

The others ran off to do as commanded. That left Shiro with the poor soul being held at sword point. He tried to fight for a second but soon found himself on the ground with a cut across his chest and a sword returned to his throat. "You still have two minutes," Shiro muttered. "Use them well."

"What do you want brat," came the voice of his aunt. She was walking closer with Vernal at her side.

Taking his blade away Shiro answered. "My seat at the table." Odin had told him how to survive here. You take what's yours let go of what isn't and never forget who's in charge.

Raven looked him over. She had never spoken to her nephew before but she could see a lot of his father in him and that made him useful. Turning to the rest of the camp Raven thought and made her choice. Vernal had been underperforming as of late. most likely due to her cushy position as the second in command.

"Vernal take him for his initiation," if the girl was shocked by the order she didn't show it. Simply nodding and walking into the forest with Shiro close behind.

They spent the next few minutes walking before Vernal suddenly turned and lashed out at him. He blocked the swung chakrams but before he could counter Vernal disappeared into the woods. "Welcome to initiation. Only one of us gets to return to the camp."

Understanding what she meant he quickly cut down a small tree and remembered which way the camp was in relation to the fallen tree. Then dropping into his fighting stance Shiro closed his eyes and listened.

He heard Vernal moving and waited. He saw her weapons and noticed a weakness. Sure enough she attacked and when he did he ran his sword inside of her chakrams loop and spun his blade twisting the weapon from her hand.

It was clear that nobody had ever done this before since she was too shocked by it to stop Shiro from repeating the motion with her other weapon. She reached with her right hand to grab one of them when Shiro brought his blade down and in one clean motion cut off the woman's hand. Vernal screamed in pain and fell to her knees.

Shiro leveled his sword at her heart. "It's over, now get out of here."

In repayment for his mercy she used her left hand to throw sand in his eyes and drove hard into his chest tripping him with her right foot. Grabbing a rock she lifted it up and brought it down on his face damaging his aura and flaring his rage. Dropping his sword he tried to block her second strike. He failed and after she drew back for a third strike the Beawolf he summoned to fight Pyrrha back at Beacon clamped its jaws around Vernal's body and threw her into a nearby tree.

As Shiro scrambled to his feet the beast viciously ripped Vernal's throat out before leaving her body to rot against the tree and turning to face Shiro.

His first thought was fear until he noticed the beast gut had a massive slash in it. Right where he had attacked it. This was the same beast but now made of what seemed to be ice. It stood motionless in front of him so he reached out and slowly rested his palm on its chest.

All at once the creature melted into a puddle on the ground. Shiro was still trying to figure out what happened when Raven interrupted. "Well that was unexpected," turning Shiro saw her sitting on a branch of a tree not too far from the fight. "It seems you got your mother's semblance. I was right to give you a shot,"

"What do you mean my mother's semblance?" he asked. "What do you know about her?"

…

"My mother was a Schnee!" Shiro yelled. He had never even known his mother's name but now that he did a lot of things made sense. Winter hates his father because she thinks he is to blame for her aunt's death which he probably was. It also explained his newly understood semblance.

He could summon a defeated enemy from his past. That explained the beowulf he kept seeing. That wound he gave it must have been fatal after enough time.

"Now on the matter of your placement here," Raven started only to be interrupted by Shiro.

"I'm not staying, I'm here to learn and earn my keep doing it but I'm not here to stay." he said hoping not to seem too rude.

Raven thought about it before responding. "One, interrupt me again and you will be in a world of pain, two that's fine but you need to work harder to earn your keep if you aren't sticking around. Your first assignment is to get rid of some drunk that's been giving us problems, I'll go with you to make sure you do your first job right" with that she headed for the door not waiting for Shiro but not running either.

…

Shiro and Raven walked into the bar and walked in on an active fight. Three of the Branwen bandits were in the middle of a brawl with a scraggly looking man. His most notable feature was the fact that his right arm was missing. But it wasn't until Shiro saw the ring on his left hand that he recognized him.

Jaune Arc was doing his best to fight with only one hand while drunk. He was doing well all things considered. Just as Shiro was about to get involved Jaune drew a sawed off shotgun and took off two of the heads he was fighting.

The third man got the muzzle jabed into his face and as Jaune holstered his weapon in order to break the action and reload. Grabbing one of the man's arms Jaune pulled and staggered the man off balance and while he was trying to get his feet back Jaune put a barrel of buckshot through his chest killing him before returning to his seat and returning to his beer.

"Go get him tiger," Raven joked, shoving Shiro closer to the now preoccupied man.

"Been a hot minute huh Jaune?" Shiro asked, hoping to be recognized as a friend and not a foe.

Not bothering to look up Jaune quickly respond "fuck off"

"Can't do that. I am on a mission of revenge and an important part of that is the training I'm getting now. But in order for that to happen you need to stop being a thorn in my aunt's side." as Shiro spoke he got closer ultimately sitting down next to the man.

"Fuck off," Jaune repeated.

Ignoring the words Shiro continued "Does Yang know where you are?" when he got no answer Shiro extrapolated. "I see, does she even know that you're alive." the silence stood and so did his assumptions. "Well I need to go talk to the bitch at the door don't go anywhere,"

Getting up he walked back to his aunt who looked both mildly amused at the fact that her nephew had the gaul to call her a bitch and mildly annoyed that her nephew had just called her a bitch.

"I need you to use one of your portals." Shiro explained.

"Why?" Raven knew better than to say no but she still wanted a reason.

With a knowing smile Shiro explained. "That is your son in law, Yang's husband. I intend to return him.

Raven looked around Shiro to see Jaune. She seemed to think about it sizing him up before concluding that given how much he looked like Tai it made sense. "If Yang can't keep what's hers then she doesn't deserve it."

Shiro had to fight the anger that blossomed when he recognized the way that Raven was looking at Jaune. He was young but if he cleaned up he was handsome. Whether she was looking for a good time or a new recruit neither of those was going to happen.

"I'll owe you a favor," he said with a tone of finality.

Raven laughed openly at this prospect before Shiro continued. "We both know that if you didn't see potential in me then I wouldn't have made it this far. That favor is going to be worth something one day, now you can take it when it's cheap or you can buy it when it costs more."

Raven's laughter stopped as she looked at her nephew. In truth she had been nothing but impressed by him. Even with the advice that Odin must have given him he was still right. He had his father's instincts but he didn't have the devotion to Ozpin that spoiled so many of Qrow's gifts.

Drawing her sword he opened a portal "you have about three minutes before I close that portal, make sure that you aren't on the wrong side of it."

…

Yang was sitting at the table getting ready to deal the dishes from dinner when her gut alarm went off. The last time she felt that she lost Pyrrha and Jaune less than an hour later. Getting to her feet she looked around the house. When she entered the living room she saw Shiro and Jaune the later of the two was staring at the floor and smelled like he hadn't showered in weeks.

"I gotta go but I think you misplaced this," Shiro said before heading back through the portal that Yang just noticed. The portal closed leaving the two of them alone. Jaune still refused to meet Yang's eyes and it took Yang a moment to figure out why.

He was ashamed. His pride was so wounded that he couldn't even look at her. Stepping closer she gently raised his head until he was looking into her eyes just like she was looking into his. Through his bloodshot eyes she could see the pain that he was holding.

Pain he refused to let go of. Pain that was eating him from the inside. No, she wasn't going to sit back and watch this. Yang was scared of commitment but she had already made one to Jaune, one that he also made and was doing a lousy job of keeping but Yang was willing to do a little bit of the leg work right now.

Taking Jaune's hand she led him first to her room where she reached for the gun on his leg. Hand tensed by instinct but relaxed almost as fast. That was good, it meant that he trusted her. With the gun unloaded and placed on the nightstand she led him to the laundry room where she ignored the shocked and confused face of her father who was folding laundry.

Grabbing two towels she left for the shower. Silently she locked the door before stripping off her clothes and helping Jaune with his. The notion of taking a shower with Jaune was one that a month ago would have sent her into a blushing mess but now it seemed a lot less sexy.

She washed the parts of his back that he couldn't reach and opened the container of shampoo. She hoped that it wasn't lost on him that she was letting him use HER shampoo. It took her several minutes to clean her hair properly but Jaune didn't seem to mind. He was just looking at her and he seemed like he was trying to think of the words he wanted to use.

With the cleaning done Yang shut off the water and handed Jaune a towel. They both dried off fast and put their clothes back on. Jaune followed Yang back to her room and when she was getting dressed for bed he did likewise which in his case meant taking off his shirt and boots. As well as taking off his belt. Before she climbed into bed she noticed that Jaune looked tense. She knew that he was stressed and that made sense.

"Lay down on your stomach" she said, breaking the several minute long silence. He did as she said and Yang went to work massaging out the sore and tight spots in his back and shoulders. She picked up this skill from years of helping Ruby when she would come home sore from running all day.

She also realized that at some point in the last seven seconds Jaune fell asleep. He had been living on the run and so roughly that now that he was in a safe place and a soft bed he was almost instantly sleeping.

Once she was done working out the tough spots Yang curled up next to Jaune draping one of her arms over him and settling down to sleep. Tomorrow she would talk to Jaune about what happened and her father was going to want answers as well but that was for tomorrow and tomorrow wasn't here.

…

Ruby, Nora, Ren, Willow, Weiss, and even Mitch were walking to Haven. It was a long journey and it wasn't getting any shorter. That was why any kind of action was enjoyed. They had run into a few stray grimm on their way here but nothing major.

It was for this reason that everyone was getting antsy when Ren froze and asked "did anyone else hear that?"

They all froze and when they listened they heard what may have been someone running but that stopped almost as soon as they heard it. When they were all certain that there was nothing to hear. Ren shook his head with mild confusion muttering. "I guess it was nothing."

…

Tyrion Callows was running at his top speed. He enjoyed the chase and the fight so what he did his best to be noticed. That was until he was suddenly tackled and dragged off the road and down into a nearby marsh.

Springing to his feet he saw that his attacker was a woman in a face mask with short hair and a single edged cavalry sword. Not in the mood for banter, Tyrion lashed out only to have his blades slice through air as the woman backstepped and thrust her swords through the opening in his defences under his left arm.

Still having his flare for drama he cartwheeled over the blade and swung his right foot in a kick at the women that knocked her mask off. She staggered back and just barely had time to dodge the barrage of bladed gauntlets that came her way.

She knew who Tyrion was and she knew how he liked to kill. So she chose to take a risk and lead him. When she felt her back bump into a tree she knew she had to act fast. Grabbing at both of Tyrion's hands she waited for the inevitable strike from his tail.

When the stinger rose she did her best to look scared of it and when it surged forward she rolled to the left having to accept the pain of one of Tyrion's blades draining her aura. Getting back to her feet she saw that his gauntlets had guns that were now pointed at her. Quickly rolling behind a tree she was about to think of a plan to finish him off when she heard a sickening spilling of guts and what sounded like an attempt to scream.

"That was for all the friends you've killed, you bastard," Qrow growled.

There was a moment of silence before Qrow spoke. "You can come out now, I know you're there but I don't plan to kill you."

The woman's heart was pounding. She had been dreading this moment for almost twenty years. But Ozpin was dead; it was time for the truth to be known. Slowly she rose to her feet and turned around to face him.

Her heart broke when she saw the way that Qrow's face twisted. The broken pieces fell when the first thing he thought to do was find his flask and make sure it wasn't empty and that he wasn't drunk.

"Crane?" he weakly muttered his scythe dropping to the mud. His steps were small, unsure, like he was uncertain if anything was real.

"Yes Qrow it's me." she said trying to keep the tears in her eyes from falling. She knew what was coming Qrow had every right to be mad. She had broken his heart and then left him with a child while she was running black ops for the same man that paid Qrow's salary.

Qrow had never been violent with her but he had every right to now and she knew that was next. Once the shock passed and he realised what she had done he would be furious and he would justly lash out at her. So she steeled herself, setting her jaw and readying her mind.

She flinched when she felt Qrow take her left hand in his right. His thumb and forefinger moving her ring finger. She felt them find her wedding ring. The only thing she had kept from her old life. It was a cheap ring but it was also the best that Qrow could legally afford.

When Crane finally managed to look at Qrow what she saw shocked her. There was nothing but love in the eyes that stared into her own. His left hand reached up and gently wrapped around the back of her head before he leaned in and kissed her.

Neither of them knew that this was the first time the other had kissed another person since they last saw each other. All of Qrow's stories he told Yang and Ruby being just that, stories.

Pulling back was hard. They both wanted more but right now they had more important things to deal with.

"What are you doing here?" Qrow asked.

"I was hunting him," Crane answered, pointing at the corpse still hanging from the tree by his stinger.

"I'm watching over my niece,"Qrow said offering Crane his hand as he stepped up out of the callow

With a wide grin Crane delicately took Qrow's hand and let him carry her back to the road. The last time he had done that was on their wedding night. Although calling it a wedding is misleading. They were unable to actually get married in the eyes of the law but they cared not for what the law thought of their love.

Once back on the road Qrow set her down and they interlocked their arms as they walked to catch the group of teenagers. Qrow had introductions to make.

…

Ruby and her group had only made it twenty more feet at their walking pace when Ren perked up and spun. This time they saw Qrow and some other woman walking towards them. They seemed like their arms were laced together and Qrow was smiling. This set off several alarms in Ruby. Very few things made her uncle smile like this.

When they had caught the group Qrow was the one to break the silence. "Ruby, I would like you to met Crane my wife,"

Taking a step closer Ruby asked. "You're Shiro's mom?"

With a look of pride in her son Crane nodded her head saying. "Yes, I am"

Instantly Ruby reached up and struck the woman across the face. She had to jump to do so but if anyone found this amusing they knew better than to voice their thoughts. "Do you have any idea how much you have hurt them both!" Ruby shrieked having to be held back from hitting her again by Willow.

Qrow was about to say something but Ruby kept doing her best to free herself from Willow's grip. "You Bitch, my Uncle has been trying to kill himself with liquor and grimm for the last seventeen years because of you and my best friend had to grow up without a mother, DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD THAT IS!" she screamed now dangling from her waist like luggage as Willow opted to just carry the now thrashing half pint monster into the nearby buildings to get her to calm down hoping that not being able to see Crane would help.

Crane wanted to cry not because of the pain from being hit Ruby has hands the size of a slightly larger than average fifth grader but the words where true Crane watched as Qrow spiraled out of control being pulled out of his tail spin by his son.

Thinking of her son brought a new wave of sorrow to her. A wave that passed when Qrow wrapped an arm around her and pulled her close. Leaning down Qrow whispered. " I forgave you the moment I saw you, Shiro will do the same." the part that Qrow left out was that if Shiro didn't then he was in for a very heavy beating.

"I know you," Weiss said getting the attention of the happy couple

"you should," Crane replied. "I'm your aunt."


	18. Chapter 18

Blake knew that she was being watched. She wasn't sure who it was or where they were but she was being watched. The boat ride to her home had been uneventful. They had almost run afoul of a pod of grimm but the ship's sonar saw them and corrected the course.

As she walked down the gangplank she could hear her stalker following her. If she was right then it was one of Adam's underlings. Most likely sent to find her and report back. That had to be dealt with. Blake had never killed before but she was willing to if it meant stopping Adam.

She headed for her home but passed through a slightly unexpected part of town. It would be seen as her seeing her home again by her stalker but in reality she was looking for someone. Someone she trusted.

Feru Lung was stocking the shelves of his bookstore and when he saw Blake a large smile spread over the old man's face. Feru was the one responsible for organizing her father's security detail when he used to meet with Atlas officials in order to negotiate for civil rights.

He was a tall and imposing snow leopard faunus. His chest was almost twice as wide as his hips and he stood at nearly seven feet tall. Even in his old age he was still a force to be reckoned with and that's what Blake was counting on.

Hugging the man she whispered. "I'm being followed. I think it's one of Adams. I need to lose them any ideas."

Without missing a beat he chuckled and answered in his broken english. "Just stay here I deal with this!" by the end of his sentence he was growling lightly. She was going to try and argue but before she could he had disappeared. Into the back of the store.

She was waiting for a few minutes before she heard a sound from the back. When she looked at the door she saw Feru walking back through dragging a person behind him by the foot. Holding them a few inches off the ground he said. "I find on rooftop looking at you and store. I say we kill,"

Blake instantly recognized the unconscious as her old friend Illia. "Please don't." she quickly blurted out. Hoping to keep Feru from killing the chameleon faunus

Dropping Illia Feru responded. "Fine but you must go home,"

Blake nodded accepting his terms. She walked over to the sink and poured a cup of water that was soon splashed over her sleeping friend's face making her wake up and thrash for a moment before seeing Blake and calming down. Throwing a paper towel to Illia Blake said. "Dry up and follow me."

It was clear that Blake was in no mood to argue so Illia did as she was told and followed Blake all the way to the mansion at the center of town. The door was unlocked as always but that didn't stop Blake from nervously knocking twice and waiting.

The wait was short as soon the door opened to reveal Blake's mother too shocked at the sight of her daughter to speak without a word she reached out and threw her arms around Blake trying not to cry as she did so.

Returning her mother's embrace Blake heard her father call out "honey who's at the door"

His question was pointless since he was also walking towards the door to see for himself. And see he did once he was at the door he froze and after a moment collected his thoughts and wrapped his large arms around both his wife and daughter. There was a pleasant feeling in the air as a family was reunited.

A feeling that made Illia seem like a stranger watching a personal moment. Mainly because she was. Thankfully the moment ended when Ghira stepped back and asked. "Where have you been your mother and I have been worried about you." his words would have seemed harsh but his tone gentled their edge.

He was glad to have his daughter back but he wanted to know what had happened to her. "I made some mistakes and now I am trying to fix them, that path lead me here." She didn't want to talk about Adam and she really didn't want to talk about Beacon of Shiro. Luckily her parents understood that she needed her privacy for now and welcomed both of them into the mansion.

"Your room hasn't been used in a long time so I hope that you can stand sleeping in a bed that either isn't yours or is a little too small." her mother said on her way to the kitchen.

Illia was following close behind Blake when they made their way to the guest room. There were two beds, both of them made and identical in design. Blake dumped her small bag on the bed to the right. "We'll talk about the fact that you were following me later right now. I think it would be best to keep your involvement with the Fang between us. Wash up for…" checking the time on her scroll Blake finished. "Dinner." before walking from the room.

…

Olivia was impressed by Adam's flying, not because he was good but because they were somehow still alive even though he seemed to forget ever rule of the Atlas CAA or committee for air travel association. He was dipping between buildings in the abandoned city and was doing so with the throttle maxed out.

Olivia was also holding onto her arm rests for dear life as thought they would save her in the event that a crash took place. Taking his eyes off of the canopy Adam looked down at the console and with a mild hrumpf he flipped a switch and they accelerated another hundred miles per hour.

That was the last straw. "What the hell is wrong with you?" Olivia asked.

Pointing at one of the lights Adam calmly said. "Need to out run the anti air radar wouldn't want daddy's little girl getting shot down by accident now would we."

His tone told her that he clearly didn't want to be here and it also told her that he thought she didn't belong here. "Would you rather I leave?" she snarled back.

"Yes," Adam's replied was without hesitation or doubt. "Everyone of us earned our place in the brotherhood by proving our love for Remnant before everything else. Everyone but you. The only reason that you aren't being buried somewhere on the Schnee estate is because your father would never allow it. You are a ride along and until you show otherwise I am going to be treating you like one."

It was clear he didn't want to keep speaking and while Olivia wanted to argue with him she knew he was right. She hadn't earned her place here she had simply earned not being tortured and then executed.

"What did you do?" she asked, hoping to both shift the blame and learn a bit about the person she was about to spend an undisclosed amount of time with.

Adam thought about whether or not he should answer her before he chose to do so. "I saved your father's life at the expense of several of my own men, the grim where on their way to a small village and there was no way that we could have stopped them on our own. So when we heard that James Ironwood was patrolling through the area with half a battalion on his flagship we opened fire on him to alert him to the danger. The return fire we received killed everyone but me."

"How was that saving my father's life." she asked unsure of whether or not she believed him.

"If the grimm had ambushed that town then you father would have personally led the mission to clear it out. In his own words. _We would have fought courageously and we would have been massacred courageously_"

Olivia had to stifle a laugh at the way that Adam deepened his voice to imitate her father. " how old are you?" she asked, still wanting to change the topic.

"I don't know," Adam answered bluntly.

"Can't you just ask your…"

"No, my father was killed before I was born and my mom died when I was about five. The records of my birth were sealed by the SDC and destroyed a few years later." Adam said cutting her off.

As pieces started to come together to paint a disturbing picture. "Adam were you born into…"

"Slavery," He muttered finishing her words for her. "Yes, I escaped a few months before the practice was outlawed in Atlas." Olivia's attention was subconsciously drawn to the SDC brand over Adam's left eye.

She wanted to ask about it but knew a bad topic well enough not to. Instead she used what she had just learned to estimate his age. "Well you are at least twenty three," she said.

"My best guess is actually twenty four but that was close,"

It occurred to Olivia that she never asked her father of Adam what their destination was.

Adam seemed to a gifted mind reader since he explained. "Before we go on our get along I need to call in a favor." as he spoke they landed in a snowy patch just outside the failed city.

"Stay here," he said grabbing a rifle from one of the racks and heading out into the snow. Olivia wanted to tell herself that the only reason she didn't immediately fly off without him was because her father would be furious, and because she had no idea how to fly the craft she was now alone in but that would have been a lie.

She was already starting to see the man behind the monster which was the whole point of the mission so maybe she needed to wait and see what the world was going to throw at them.

The boarding door opened and she reached for her sword but stopped when Adam walked through the threshold and with a weary face said. "That's done, let's get going."

Olivia was about to ask what was wrong before he once again cut her off saying. "I don't want to talk about it, let's just get to the hotel."

The flight to the brotherhood safehouse was silent until they were in the car when Adam's scroll rang and she checked the email that he received. Just as he did he burst out cursing in what Oliva could only guess was three different languages.

"What's got you so worked up?" she asked trying to read the email without actually reading over his shoulder.

"Jacques wants your father to kill me in a violent way," Adam muttered before holding his hand out in front of a device under the dashboard that promptly spit out two driver's licenses. One was for Mr. Adam Du'Frey. The other one which had Olivia's face on it, and was for Mrs. Olivia Du'Frey.

Just as she was figuring out what Adam meant about getting killed by her father Adam kept muttering. "Bastard booked us in the honeymoon suite too, damn it."

When they arrived at the hotel he gave her the ID for Mrs. Du'Frey and explained. "Listen, the staff is going to be expecting us to act like a couple of newlyweds. I don't want you taking any of what's about to happen in the next five or six minutes the wrong way."

Before she could respond the valet appeared at the door and reached for Adam to hand him the keys. Once he was looking inside the cabin Adam leaned forward and kissed her wrapping one of his hands around the back of her head before making a sound that concerned Olivia.

He pulled back and handed over the keys without looking directly at the valet. A good measure since Adam was dressed in his usual Adam Taurus leather. Hotel staff have been trained to not see that which is inappropriate and since Olivia was looking too dumbstruck to be a part of this then that meant that the work was on Adam's part. Hopefully James wouldn't hold this against him.

Adam smoothly stepped out of the car and made a fact of sliding over the hood of the car to get to Olivia's door a little faster. Once there he did his best to rip the door off when he opened it and scooped up the still stunned girl before carrying her in his arms to the main desk. On the way there he was looking where he was going only when he absolutely had to and at every other chance he was kissing his way up Olivia's collar bone on his way to her mouth.

This was a convenient reason for nobody to really take the time to look at his face. After all, most of them couldn't see it and nobody wanted to be seen gawking at the two of them. Olivia for her part seemed to have figured out what to do and the giggles and other such sounds she was making drove all gazes further away.

The clerk was about to ask them if they had a reservation when Olivia slammed their fake IDs down on the desk. Accepting that he wasn't going to be getting any more out of them the clerk simply handed them a set of keys and said. "Room 593 fifth floor"

Olivia grabbed the keys and once they were in the elevator Adam set her down before he set about cleaning her lipstick off his face. The sudden shift from shoving his tongue down her throat to calmly correcting his jacket confused Olivia. (in no small part because Adam may have been putting on a show but she was very much so invested in their previous activities.)

"We should be in the clear now the staff knows better than to get too close to our room after the show we just put on for them." He said as the door opened to reveal their floor.

Olivia was a little miffed to say the least. Adam had just dragged her into metaphorically deep water and then just left her there. She was feeling things in this moment that she had never felt before. Things that were made more confusing by the fact that she was actively trying to humanize Adam.

Once the door was closed and Adam had checked to make sure that it was empty he went back into the main room only to have Olivia surprise him by throwing her arms around him and attempting to kiss him.

It was only an attempt though since Adam deftly slipped out of her grip and took three quick steps back. "What the Hell was that!" Adam half shouted.

Olivia now looked more awkward than anything else made a few sounds that may have been intended to be words but they were unintelligible. "I told you not to get the wrong Idea didn't I!"

Adam knew his words might seem harsh but he wanted to make sure that there was no confusion between the two of them and her father.

Then she started to yell but not at Adam. she was also yelling in a language that Adam didn't know but it seemed like she was cursing about her father. Though he was extrapolating based on what he knew of similar languages.

When she finally spoke english it to asked Adam. "do you have any Idea how hard it is to be the daughter of James Ironwood?!"

"No I don't!" Adam said making a fact of emphasizing that fact on account of his upbringing he never had any parents.

" well it's nearly impossible, every boy who has even seen me for the last seven years has been too afraid to even look at me for more than six seconds. The only one that even seemed to think about it was the grandson of the man that trained my father but he straight up told me that he couldn't see me as anything more than a friend since my father was like a brother to him!"

Olivia was rambling and if Adam was honest he didn't have the patients for this. ignoring her he went about looking over the room. There was only one bed which told him that he was going to be on the couch tonight. That was how these things normally went since he was the youngest member of the brotherhood. or at least he was the youngest. now he needed to give up the chance for an actual bed so that James wouldn't want to kill the next time they met.

It turns out that ignoring a raging eighteen year old woman who was ranting about how she hasn't managed to get so much as a hug from any boy within five years of her was a bad idea that was immediately rewarded with the landline for the room being thrown at the back of Adam's head.

Adam's patience gave way to anger. "WHAT THE FUCK!" he yelled turning to face her while rubbing the back of his head.

"Listen to me when I'm talking to you!" Olivia shouted.

"why?" Adam asked working on getting his anger under control. "you just threw a damn handsent at me, why on earth should I be listening to you rant and rave like a bratty child, I have no fucking CLUE how someone like James managed to raise an aboslute bitch like yourself."

his verbal lashing seemed to achieve his intended purpose when Olivia realized what she was doing and stopped. Adam sighed trying to think about what to say. before he could Olivia did. "I'm sorry, I know that I still haven't earned my place here. when our luggage gets here I'll go grab dinner from somewhere."

as if on queue the doorbell rang and when Adam went to inspect it he saw the hotel staffer that had left their bags at their door. quickly taking off his shirt, loosening his belt and tussling his hair Adam opened the door and out of the corner of his eye he saw one of the maids trying to hide out of sight.

she was watching for any sign of what was going on. Adam could have sent her running with a stern glance but the last thing he wanted to do was clearly show his face to anyone. That was part of why Olivia had offered to go get the food.

reaching down he grabbed most of the bags over his shoulders and smoothly lifted them up. an old trick that he had learned working in the mines. turning around gave the maid a good view of his well toned and heavily scarred back.

the slight gasp that he heard told him he was right about the maid. she was most likely a faunus who liked what she saw. He was a former miner who seemed to have found success in the business world. the maid was going to spend the next few minutes enveying Olivia. or at least she would think that she was envious of Adam's "Wife"

using his foot to guide the last of the case into the room Adam walked into the living room to find Olivia who if she was impressed by the show of strength wasn't showing it. setting down the cases he grabbed his own and went about setting up his hygiene bag in the bathroom. razor, toothbrush, shampoo, and finally a black pouch that he took with him back into the living.

"If you plan to go out you should dress well. they are going to be expecting you to go out of you way to be the prettiest thing on the planet," Adam said looking through his bags making sure that everything was there.

with a nod Olivia grabbed her bags and headed for the bedroom to change. completely unaware of what she was about to walk into.


	19. Chapter 19

Olivia had one good dress in her pack; it was one that Winter had packed for her. the thought of her pseudo sister slightly troubled her. Winter had no idea what she was now getting into and when she found out that Olivia had to travel on important business she immediately agreed to pack a bag for her.

the dress was nothing too fancy just simple well made white dress with red trim and a few rose petals running down it. she used her scroll to order ahead so that the place she ordered from would be ready when she arrived. stepping to the modest set of heels that she kept on her at all times Olivia opened the door and saw Adam adjusting his tie with one hand while he aplied makeup with his other.

He was clearly well practiced in hiding the scar over his eye but still watching him finish and then stand up shocked Olivia. if she didn't know any better she wouldn't have believed that this was the same man she spoke to ten minutes ago. his leather outfit had been swapped for a slim fit grey suit complete with vest and tie. holding his arms out for inspection he asked. "what do you think?"

Olivia was speechless. she had no idea that he could look so much unlike himself. the wide grin on his face told her that he expected this. "everyone does that when I dress well. That's why I always wear the edgelord outfit. everyone remembers it so the first time I don't wear it everyone is confused. I can go anywhere dressed like this and never be noticed."

the way that he spoke told her that he had in fact gone places that he should not have been allowed dressed like this. "where are you going?" she asked out of curiosity.

"We are going to dinner, I reserved us a table at the hotel's five star restaurant." Adam said grabbing a fixed blade knife and tucking it into the sheath that he had hidden in the armpit of his jacket.

"but I already placed our..." Olivia tried to say before being cut off by Adam.

"I called ahead and cancelled your order," he said with a wave of his hand. "I wanted this to be a Surprise."

Offering his left arm to Olivia he waited for a moment before Olivia remembered that she was supposed to weave one of her arms with his. Walking to the door they quickly learned to match their steps together.

As they left Adam subtly checked for the maid and was glad to not find her. The less they were watched coming and going from their room the less likely they were to be spotted when they shouldn't be.

When they arrived at the restaurant Adam was that one that addressed the matron. Olivia had no idea what he said because she couldn't speak the language.

When they had been led to their table Adam pulled out Olivia's chair for her. She tried not to blush too much as she accepted the offer. As Adam read the menu he noticed that Olivia looked confused and then realized that she didn't speak or read the language of ancient Vale.

The waiter was on the way over to their table and Adam had to think fast. Drawing undue attention would be a bad idea and having to teach her how to order would most definitely draw undue attention.

Hoping that Olivia took after her father he turned to the waiter who was in the process of asking for their order and said. "Juasucre Du'frey, ue ro tru liwu. Qrase ron do frozure ue ro liwu qrosu ran da mantles corso. Ue nintul drauwlor"

The waiter recorded Adam's words before taking both menus. And leaving the table. Olivia was doing her best to not be too confused by what was going on. "I just ordered for us. I need to teach you how to be conversational in ancient Valettian at some point." he said blandly. They sat in silence for a moment before Olivia noticed that Adam was staring at her.

He seemed to be studying her intently for something but she didn't know what. Her blood started warm all the same but she tried to not let it show. The waiter returned with a bottle of wine and two glasses for them setting them down and leaving to continue his work elsewhere.

"What did you order?" Olivia asked, wondering what was going to be coming to her plate.

"I ordered a steak with truffle sauce and you ordered a svaor variation of a sandwich that your father loves." Adam said

"Why are you doing this?" she next asked wonder what his goal was with all of this.

Pouring them both a glass of wine Adam handed Olivia her glass explaining. "One this is a part of the mission you and I need to be able to co exist in public and private. Two you said you had never been on a date before. If your father finds out that I let someone later on down the line manipulate you by playing with your feelings then he could kill me. Not that he would get the chance to."

Oliva did her best not to look deflated at the fact that Adam was only doing all of this because of her father. Right up until he continued on. " that and I got out of a very poorly thought through relationship a few months ago so I want to make sure that nobody ever hurts you the way that... " Adam seemed to stumble over his words for a moment before he finished. "The way that I hurt Blake."

Several things suddenly clicked for Olivia. She had wondered why Blake tried to run away that night, she had wondered why Adam seemed so gunshy about the fact that she tried to kiss him. He wasn't afraid of her father; he was afraid of messing up again. Of hurting someone again.

It seemed unlike the monster she had seen on the news and in the propaganda. But then again that was the whole point of propaganda it made the enemy inhumane so that they were easier to kill. She had always known that but she had never given it much thought.

Their food had just arrived. And Olivia had to stifle a laugh when she saw that Adam had in fact ordered a steak. Looking up at her he smiled. "What?" he asked.

"I'm sorry but i find it odd that you ordered a steak doesn't that cause some kind off"

"Problem," Adam finished. "None whatsoever, when you live like me you need to get all the protein that you can get and beef is solid protein."

Looking at her own plate Olivia saw what may have once been a sandwich. But had since been coated in some manner of sauce or gravy that smelled good.

"That has a good combination of ham, cheese, toast, and roasted red pepper sauce." he explained motioning with his fork that was oddly held in his left hand.

Olivia cut herself off a piece and sure enough it was amazing. She could understand why her father enjoyed it so much. She kept going and before she could think about it the plate was empty and Adam was likewise tearing through his plate and glass in order to not make her sit awkwardly. Once he was done he waved for the check and after paying they locked arms and left.

On their way to the elevator Olivia noticed that they were being watched. Deciding to sell the ruse and that turn about was fair play she snaked her left arm down Adam's back and settled in on the left side of his ass.

If Adam noticed her actions then he didn't show it. That was a good sign for her since that meant that he was trying for all he was worth to hide his reactions.

By the time that they had made it to the elevator she let go and stepped a half step to ehr own right. Adam adjusted his jacket which Olivia was learning may have been a nervous tick of his. The walk to the door Adam leaned down and whispered in her ear. "Playing with fire can get you burned."

He opened the door and as she walked though trying to figure out what he meant Adam swung his hand down swatting Olivia's ass hard enough to make her loudly yelp and hop step into the room as Adam swaggered in behind her and closed the door.

This was going to be a complicated week.

…

Jaune woke up to find Yang peacefully sleeping to his left arm laced under Yang's right and their legs woven together. It was challenging to untangle himself from her but he managed to do it. Silently getting to his feet he grabbed his pants and put them on. The button was challenging given that he only had the one hand but he managed with some difficulty. Opting to forgo his shirt Jaune checked that his scroll was still in his pocket and headed down stairs.

His only memory of the house was with a mild hangover so he was looking around and learning the blind spots. As he made his way into what seemed to be the main room/ kitchen he saw a man that seemed to be thirty give or take a few years waiting for him.

Holding out a cup of coffee the man introduced himself. "TaiYang XiaoLong, father of the woman you slept with last night." there was a clear edge in his voice but Jaune understood. Taking the cup Jaune sat at one of the stools and almost fell over when he went to stabilize himself with his absent right arm.

Taking a moment to look into the cup of unsweetened and black coffee Jaune shifted his gaze to Tai. " Jaune, your son in law." he replied. It occurred to him that this was no time for him to be laconic but honestly he had no desire to engage in a long and drawn out conversation.

Tai took the news fairly well. Nodding like he already knew about Jaune and Yang being married. "I kinda figured something like this was going to happen since Yang has been wearing a wedding ring. Nice to meet you." Tai almost held out his right hand for Jaune to shake it but he stopped himself.

An awkward silence settled over them and Jaune turned his focus back to his scroll now that he was sober Jaune was making plans. The last few weeks had been sloppy. He refused to tend to anything since he was too busy being pathetic. That changed now.

Tai looked like he was trying to figure out what to say when Yang broke the silence. "I see you two have met." as she walked past Jaune she brushed her hair out of the way allowing her to gently kiss his cheek as she walked by. Giving her father a hug she stole his coffee and sat down across from Jaune.

"So, what happened to you after… well after?" she asked.

Jaune didn't want to answer but years of Arc training told him that the bond between husband and wife was a sacred one that was to be honored. Even though he no longer held the name many of the morals still hung on so setting his scroll down he answered. "I made it to one of my hidden caches and got some clothes. The rest of it is sort of a blur I think there was a lot of drinking involved. That was when Shiro found me and brought me here."

Yang reached out and grabbed Jaune's left hand with her right. "We buried Sun and Pyrrha," she saw the tears welling in his eyes and squeezed a little tighter. "Ruby and Willow went after the people who did this."

"Don't bother," Jaune said, freeing his hand long enough to wipe the tears from his eyes. Instead of answering Jaune simply stared at Tai. the older man needed a few seconds to figure out that Jaune wanted him to leave the room. Tai didn't totally trust Jaune but Yang seemed to know what she was doing.

Once Tai had closed the front door. Jaune explained. " the woman who killed Pyrrha is dead, I made sure of it myself. And as for whoever killed Sun, those matters tend to sort themselves out."

Yang was surprised to learn that Jaune had killed the woman responsible for Pyrrha's death but in hindsight that made complete sense there was no way that he would allow the bitch to live. The part about Naomi sorting herself out was also obvious. He was scared. He was trying to circle the wagons until he knew what was going on.

"Naomi betrayed us, she killed Sun and tried to kill Shiro, if Cinder is dead then she will be next." Yang said hoping that Jaune wouldn't fight her too hard on the matter. Luckily he seemed to agree with her.

"That makes sense but I think that it's going to take more than a few students to bring this whole thing down."

Checking his scroll he looked out the window in time for an old model of rocket locker to land in the yard. Tai apparently wasn't expecting it since he jumped a little before Jaune went up to it and used his scroll to unlock it.

There was a long gun inside with boxes of ammo and maps, charts, knives, and various bi and tripods.

Grabbing the rifle, a box of ammo, the charts and a bipod before heading over to the valley nearby. Attaching the bipod Jaune laid down and looked through the scope. He referenced the chart but he was clearly having a hard time doing everything with one hand.

Loading the magazine he aimed for a dead tree on the other end of the valley. Firing he adjusted the scope a little and fired again. This time the tree was hit square in the center and with a satisfied nod Jaune took out the magazine and put the rifle into the case in the locker.

"I work for a set of subcontractors," Jaune explained. As he worked to fit a tripod and a box of ammo into the case he realized that he was going to have to explain further since Yang didn't know what that meant.

"Cransler or Omar?" Tai asked, surprising Jaune and confusing Yang.

" Cransler why?" Jaune replied wondering how his father in law knew either of those names.

"I am Cransler," Tai answered in a clearly impressed tone.

Walking up to him Jaune held out his hand. " AJ Koss" Jaune offered.

When Tai shook his hand Yang burst. "What are you two talking about!?" she yelled.

They looked at each other for a moment before Jaune answered. "I have a side job as a hitman,"

"And I'm his employer," Tai finished.

Now Yang wanted answers. She was done with having things held out on her. Walking over to Jaune she grabbed him by the collar and dragged him into the woods. Once they were alone she snapped.

"Anything else you want to tell me about," she had been very patient but she was running out of chill very fast.

" Willow isn't my sister, I've been working as a hired killer for the last seven years, and while your breasts are amazing the way your eyes shift when you get angry is without a doubt the most beautiful thing about you." Jaune answered back calmly. He had been on the metaphorical firing line before with his mother and sister so this wasn't too different.

Yang took in his answer piece by piece nodding at the part about Willow not being his sister, accepting that Jaune was a hitman and when she got to the comment about her eyes she had to fight the blush running to her cheeks.

Realizing that he had said that in order to get her to calm down a little she laughed and punched his left shoulder. "Cheater," she joked.

Instead of responding with words Jaune leaned in and kissed her using his left hand to wrap her waist. Somehow this resulted in the two of them rolling on the forest floor fighting with each other's clothes.

Suddenly Yang rolled into the mount before leaning up and breaking off the kiss. "We need to talk about a lot after this." she said not quite holding the promise of the next few minutes over Jaune but still making her point clear.

Nodding somberly Jaune agreed " yes but that can wait a little longer." before his left hand reached up and went to work at Yang's shirt.


End file.
